


Sweet Sweet Money

by Remembrance



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Age Difference, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Comedy, Cute, Fluff, Humor, M/M, Sexual Content, Slow Build, Sorry Not Sorry, Sugar Daddy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-01-16
Updated: 2015-03-22
Packaged: 2018-03-07 18:47:30
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 8
Words: 39,021
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3179204
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Remembrance/pseuds/Remembrance
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p> A.K.A. The Suga' Daddy AU.</p><p> Sugawara will never admit he’s jealous, will never admit that he’s curious…  Being Iwaizumi’s best friend meant seeing the perks of that kind of relationship. Oikawa is younger, fun, vibrant… Sure, Suga might admit that he <em>thinks</em> about it every now and then, after all it would be nice having his own younger boyfriend who will work around his hectic schedule, but there’s no way he will say he wants it. Sadly, or maybe luckily, he doesn’t have to say anything. Iwaizumi and Oikawa already have some plans for him. </p><p> No dolphins were harmed in the making of this fanfiction.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I don't even know, I'm not sorry, just enjoy it. Shh, don't question it, just read and enjoy.

 In a room decorated with mahogany wood and silk curtains, Suga opened his eyes. His hair was a mess, face shoved into a pillow. He let out an annoyed sigh and curled up, tugging the blanket around him. His arms curled around his pillow and he brought it down, against his chest, holding it, hugging it tight. He could hear birds chirping. He could feel the sun filter through his apartment window, pouring warm light over his chilly skin. He woke with a shiver; but, somehow, he forced himself out of bed.  
   
 He rubbed his neck, sore from…  
   
 Well he had no reason to be sore but pains just appeared everywhere nowadays.  
   
 He took a deep breath and ran his hand through his hair.  
   
 Voices murmured, giggling ensued.  
   
 There was a time Sugawara was embarrassed about the whole ordeal, but now he just didn’t care anymore. He left his room and walked over to the kitchen, ignoring the two enjoying each other’s company. Oikawa sitting on his kitchen counter, Iwaizumi between his legs, both of them shameless as ever, making small talk and little kisses. Suga just went straight for the pot of coffee, pouring himself a mug.  
   
 “Morning,” muttered Iwaizumi.  
   
 “Ouch,” Oikawa said in a laugh. “He looks like the walking dead.”  
   
 Iwaizumi jabbed his rib, which caused Oikawa to whine loudly, but he ignored it. “Long shift last night?”  
   
 “Mm.” Sugawara made another noise as he drank his coffee before deciding he should speak. “Came back five in the morning? Patient went into cardiac arrest just when we thought she was fine… Barely saved her.”  
   
 “But,” Oikawa said as he threw his head back, “You did save her.”  
   
 “I did,” Suga repeated. A subtle smile formed on his lips. “Thanks.”  
   
 Oikawa laughed. “You’re welcome—I know I’m sunshine!”  
   
 Iwaizumi gave a light smack to the back of his head. “Don’t say dumb things like that.”  
   
 “Iwa-chan!” Oikawa winced and pouted.  
   
 Suga let out a small laugh. “So your kitchen is still broken?”  
   
 “Mhm.” Iwaizumi made a face. “The repair guy came… but he just broke it more.”  
   
 “Ouch,” muttered Suga.  
   
 “Yeah.” Oikawa sighed. “I’m sorry we have to use your space, Sugar-Sweetie.”  
   
 Iwaizumi flared his nostrils. “Don’t do that.”  
   
 “But it’s cute. Are you jealous, Iwa-chan?”  
   
 “No. And it’s not cute.”  
   
 Suga just rolled his eyes. “Are you heading to work?”  
   
 “Not for a while, but we’re going out soon.” Iwaizumi glanced back to Oikawa. “We’ve got a date.”  
   
 Suga smiled. “Sounds nice.”  
   
 “You know,” Oikawa spoke in a voice that was dark and dangerous. “You could have a special someone too.”  
   
 Sugawara just laughed. “Yeah… that’s not happening anytime soon, not with my schedule.”  
   
 “Oh Sugar-Sweetie.” Oikawa let out a little purr. “I meant a relationship more like mine and Iwa-chan’s.”  
   
 “H-Huh?” Suga’s eyes widened, eyebrows shooting up. “N-No way, that’s just…”  
   
 “Wrong?” Oikawa cocked his head. “Dirty?”  
   
 “No, of course not.” Suga sipped his coffee. “It’s just not for me.”  
   
 “You won’t know until you try, my dear.”  
   
 “But…” Suga glanced to Iwaizumi—if he hadn’t interrupted Oikawa just yet, then he was probably on Oikawa’s side. He knew he had to choose his words carefully. “Look, it’s just, not for me. You guys like it and that’s cool, but the whole thing about… paying someone to be my boyfriend? Paying for dates?”  
   
 “It works well for us,” Iwaizumi pointed out.  
   
 “Yeah,” agreed Oikawa. “Iwa-chan loves it.”  
   
 “I said don’t call me that.”  
   
 “Well then just spank me, Iwa-chan!”  
   
 “Maybe I will…”  
   
 “Oh?” Oikawa through his arms around Iwaizumi and kissed his jaw. “Well then…”  
   
 Suga took that at his cue to get moving.  
   
   
   
 Hot water and steam surrounded him. Suga dunked his head under the shower’s stream and he closed his eyes. The aches and pains appeared again, this time stinging his neck and lower back. He let out a huff, a sigh, and raised his head. He kept his eyes closed, feeling the constant rush of water. He rubbed his neck and sighed—yet again. That’s all he could do, really. He turned off the water, but stayed in the shower for another minute or two before he forced himself out.  
   
 He grabbed his bathrobe and put it on.  
   
 Within an hour he was across the city, a white doctor’s coat over his usual clothes. He had a checkup with a couple patients, nothing extreme. His mind kept wandering, wandering to what Oikawa had told him. The idea had danced in his mind a couple times, actually, but he never really considered it. Why would he? He washed his hands in the bathroom, glancing up to the mirror.  
   
 Yes his name was Suga, but there was no way he could be a sugar daddy.  
   
 As he continued to rub his hands together absentmindedly, his mind wandered yet again. Oikawa… Suga had probably seen _too_ much of Tooru Oikawa over the past few months. Suga closed his eyes and he could see—he could see that hairless, smooth, soft skin. The light trace of muscles, broad shoulders… the way he moved his hips—with grace—and his thighs…  
   
 Suga shook his head, shutting off the water.  
   
 Could he have… someone, like that?  
   
 “Stop,” he ordered himself, although his voice was soft almost as if he was begging. He grabbed the paper towel and began drying his hands.  
   
 He knew the system worked wonders for Iwaizumi, but it wouldn’t mean it could work for him. Hajime Iwaizumi was the CEO of an international business. It wasn’t anything too exciting, they made plates, but it meant frequent business trips, frequent meetings, and constant being on top of everyone. He had so much on his plate that the bare truth was that he didn’t have time for a real relationship.  
   
 So his agreement with Oikawa… worked.  
   
 Oikawa met with Iwaizumi and subscribed to whatever convenienced Iwaizumi… in exchange, Oikawa walked away with several bills of cash every time they met up.  
   
 Sugar daddy.  
   
 “Sugar daddy,” he whispered, just to taste it on his tongue.  
   
 Suga tossed the paper towel in the trash and walked out of the bathroom. He sighed as he felt his mind wander again.  
   
 Could he…?  
   
  _Should_ he?  
   
 “Maybe,” Suga muttered. “One day, but not today.” He scratched the back of his head. It was weird to pay someone for that kind of thing… How much would he pay, anyway? “Ugh,” he grunted. “Ugh…”  
   
   
   
 Iwaizumi took a hit from his cigarette, the end flaring red for a moment. He aimed his breath at the window and it came out in a smoky grey. He was shirtless, muscled chest revealed. He still wore his pants, though they were clumsily put on. He sat on the edge of his bed in his condominium, which happened to be across the hall from Suga’s place. He had found the place for sale when Suga bought his place and recommended the building. The fact that they were so close was completely chance, though.  
   
 Oikawa on the other hand was naked, breath still a little unsteady from being thoroughly fucked. A lazy, fulfilled smile was on his lips and he stretched his arms. “You’re the best, Iwa-chan.”  
   
 “Don’t call me that.”  
   
 “Mhm, whatever you say.”  
   
 Iwaizumi just snorted.  
   
 Oikawa grinned, taking it as his victory. “Hey… about Suga.” He glanced over. “Wanna hook him up?”  
   
 Iwaizumi looked over his shoulder.  
   
 “It’ll be fun~!”  
   
 “He won’t agree to it.”  
   
 “He will,” Oikawa assured, “He just won’t completely understand what he’s agreeing to.”  
   
 Iwaizumi just stared.  
   
 “It’s simple. You tell Suga that we just want to go to a club, unwind, have some fun. You know? And you know which club I want to take him to. Rent out the VIP area for one night… and I promise, I’ll take care of the rest.”  
   
 “Hm… fine. When?”  
   
 “Friday.”  
   
 Iwaizumi raised an eyebrow. “You’re going to find someone that fast?”  
   
 “Just leave it to me, Iwa-chan.” He stretched. “Actually… give me my phone. I need it.”  
   
 Iwaizumi glanced to the bedside table, where Oikawa had left his phone. He grabbed it then handed it over.  
   
 Oikawa took it with a whisper of thanks and began typing.  
   
  _[Tooru: Hey u free Fri?]_  
   
 The response was sudden, but short.  
   
  _[FoShouwYou: depends]_  
   
  _[Tooru: I’m looking to hook up a guy its his first time with a sbaby]_  
   
  _[FoShouwYou: first?]_  
   
  _[Tooru: He’s a doctor rich as fuck. He’s a sweet guy tho so don’t play with his heart but he’s a walking wad of cash Hinata]_  
   
  _[FoShouwYou: catch?]_  
   
 Oikawa frowned.  
   
 Iwaizumi noticed it and cocked his head. “What?”  
   
 “Nothing, he’s just giving me one word replies…” Oikawa glanced to the clock and then raised an eyebrow. “Maybe he’s in class.”  
   
  _[Tooru: I can’t promise anything longterm but he’s got $$$ to burn. Talk more Fri k?]_  
   
   
   
 A few days passed and the fated Friday came.  
   
 “Wow,” Suga said in disbelief, “I can’t remember the last time someone took me to a club.”  
   
 Oikawa laughed, airy, carefree (which Iwaizumi knew was his manipulative laugh). “You used to come pretty often before, right?”  
   
 “Uh…” Suga looked away.  
   
 Iwaizumi nodded. “Yeah. He used to go every night.”  
   
 “I can tell,” Oikawa said with a noise of approval. “You dressed up _very_ nicely, Sugar-Sweetie.”  
   
 Suga had worn a blue shirt, a couple necklaces, and a white sweater over that just covered his belt. For pants, he wore tight jeans that hugged his legs nicely. He wore a couple bracelets, but nothing too flashy. He looked around at the crowd, people who were usually around twenty, and felt a little out of place. As far as the other two were concerned, he could blend in easily. “Th-Thanks, Oikawa.”  
   
 Iwaizumi tapped his shoulder. “Our spot is up there.” He pointed at a set of stairs leading up, lit up by neon lights.  
   
 “I’ll be up in a sec,” Oikawa assured with a wink.  
   
 Suga went up, looking around at the lounge. The second floor area was like a balcony over the first floor, giving them a view of everyone on the dance floor below. Although the room was dark, brilliant lights of different colours waved over the crowd. The music, which was heavy on beats and rhythm, was softer upstairs, which let them talk easier. There were sofas along the walls and several tables.  
   
 Suga was sure at least ten people could enjoy the area, but it was just the two of them. He took a seat on a chair at one of the round glass tables. The lounge area seemed to have a purple-pink tint to it with the lights. He figured it matched since it was a gay club, but his eyes eventually fell on his best friend. “Not going to go dance with your boytoy?”  
   
 Iwaizumi laughed and sat across from him on the couch’s plush seat. “Maybe later, but not yet.”  
   
 Eventually one of the serving girls, which happened to be a man in drag, took their orders for drinks.  
   
 “You’re nervous,” Iwaizumi noted.  
   
 “Well, yeah. It’s just been a while since I’ve had actual fun.”  
   
 “I bet there are a lot of cute guys down there.”  
   
 “Cute young guys,” Suga corrected. “They won’t go for me.”  
   
 “Why not?”  
   
 “Because I’m old.” Suga shrugged.  
   
   
   
 “Now it’s my turn,” Oikawa muttered low enough that nobody would hear him over the music and the crowd. He walked over to the bar where he saw a certain orange hairball glancing at his phone. He was typing something and Oikawa’s phone buzzed. He didn’t bother looking at it. Eventually he pulled up in the chair next to him and leaned on the bar counter. He took a half-second to look him over.  
   
 Hinata was wearing a black shirt that looked even darker in the club’s light. It was loose on him, barely hanging—Oikawa bet that if Hinata moved a certain way it would easily show skin and the contrast between black shirt and Hinata’s skin—though, that was probably the point. He also wore dark navy jeans, a little loose on him, but tied up with a grey belt.  
   
 Oikawa smiled. “Hinata.”  
   
 Hinata looked up. “Hey!” He grinned wide. “I just messaged you. So, you got Mister Doctor here?”  
   
 “Mhm.” Oikawa waved his hand at the bartender. “One blue lagoon!” He looked back at Hinata. “Mister _Rich_ Doctor.”  
   
 “How rich?” Hinata raised an eyebrow, sipping on his own colourful drink. “Richer than yours?”  
   
 “A lot richer,” Oikawa admitted.  
   
 Hinata’s other eyebrow went up too. “Huh? How?”  
   
 “Well, one he’s a doctor, two… I think he got his name on some medical research science shit and basically he’s getting a cut of profit on some drug. I don’t know the details, but apparently he might be getting more out of the profit than his own job—and he’s the head of his department or whatever. I don’t know his finances, but he’s got a lot of it babe.”  
   
 “Sign me up!” Hinata grinned. “How old is he?”  
   
 “Late thirties, same age as mine.”  
   
 “Not too bad.” Hinata thought to his last sugar daddy and shuddered. “Anything’s better than sixty.”  
   
 “Mhm, he looks pretty young too. He’s in good health, too.”  
   
 “Well, he is a doctor I guess.”  
   
 “He’s got a nice place, nice car, all the green lights. He’s also a sweet guy—I can’t see him asking about sex anytime soon.”  
   
 “Okay.” Hinata eyed Oikawa for a moment. “I’m not an idiot. He sounds utterly perfect… Usually a guy like that has some kind of mega flaw, right? What’s the catch, Tooru?”  
   
 “Well, there’s no real catch. He’s just the usual guy, too involved in his job to have a real boyfriend, so this arrangement works better for him… but…”  
   
 “But?” Hinata cocked his head. “Does he want me to dress like a girl? Wants me to wear a dog mask? Too clingy?”  
   
 “No, none of that.” Oikawa patted his head. “It’s the opposite. He’s not kinky at all… in fact, he’s not even comfortable with the idea of having a sugar baby. He’s Iwa-chan’s bestie, from high school or something. He’s perfect, and every time I bring up the idea of him being someone’s sugar daddy… I know he’s thinking about it, considering it… But, basically if you can warm him up to the idea, he’ll blast you with money.”  
   
 “Huh.” Hinata glanced to his drink and then took a sip. “So just gotta get him to accept the whole dynamic… or whatever?”  
   
 “That’s what I said, Hinata.”  
   
 “Mhm.”  
   
 “Up for the challenge?”  
   
 “Hell yeah. Got nothing to lose.” Hinata drank again. “What does he look like? Cute?”  
   
 “Oh yeah. He’s got grey hair, brown eyes… nice eyes.”  
   
 “Grey hair? Is he only thirty?”  
   
 “Thirty-seven, or something. But his hair’s like… white? Silver?” He pulled out his phone and went through his pics. “Do you watch anime?”  
   
 “Uh, yeah?”  
   
 “He’s like one of those guys.”  
   
 “Oikawa, those guys aren’t real.”  
   
 Oikawa offered his phone. “He’s mega cute.”  
   
 “Oh wow…” Hinata eyed the picture of Suga, noting how the hair looked… alive. Not dead like his grandmother or whatever. He looked at Suga’s eyes and hummed. “Okay, he’s pretty cute.”  
   
   
   
 Iwaizumi and Suga had finished their drink and ordered second. They talked about nothing, really. Discussing work and recent changes, nothing exciting. Iwaizumi eventually glanced to the side.  
   
 “Ta-da!” Oikawa smiled as he walked up to the lounge, drink in hand. Behind him was the orange hairball. “This is Hinata!” He shoved Hinata forward.  
   
 Hinata yelped, almost spilling his drink as he crashed next to Suga. “Hey!”  
   
 Suga blinked, catching on quick. “Uh…”  
   
 “Hi,” Iwaizumi cut Suga off before he could say anything.  
   
 “Hey,” Hinata said in a laugh as he put his drink on the table.  
   
 “Um…” Suga looked at Hinata, and when Hinata looked back… Suga’s eyes dipped to Hinata’s lips, then to the black shirt and dark navy jeans. Realising what he was doing, his eyes darted back up. “Hi.”  
   
 Hinata eyed him, smile not at all subtle.  
   
 Suga glanced to Hinata’s eyebrows, noting that the bright hair colour probably was his natural. He half wondered if the hair… down there, was the same colour—or would he be all shaven like Oikawa? Cheeks flushing red, he glanced away, scratching his nose. “I’m sorry, I know what Oikawa’s trying to do and I’m not… I mean, I don’t… You know?”  
   
 “I get that,” Hinata said in a nod. “It is kinda weird, huh?”  
   
 Suga looked at him and smiled. “Yeah… It’s probably just not for m—”  
   
 “Why don’t you two dance for a bit?” Iwaizumi suggested, cocking his head to over the railing.  
   
 “I…” Suga paled. “I can’t dance.”  
   
 “Yes you can.”  
   
 Oikawa leaned on the table, sprawling over with a lazy smile. “Sugar Cube can dance, huh?”  
   
 “Mhm.” Iwaizumi smirked. “Hinata. Take him.”  
   
 “Well…” Suga scratched the back of his head. “It’s been a long time since I danced, in my younger days.”  
   
 “You’re thirty,” Hinata pointed out, “Not Sixty.” He grabbed Suga’s hands and tugged him. “Come on.”  
   
 “Are you—?”  
   
 “Come on!”  
   
   
   
 On the dance floor, Hinata pulled Suga to the centre of the crowd. He ignored the protests and smiled. “Just have fun, okay?” he raised his voice over the music and the people, “Come on!”  
   
 “But this is… weird,” Suga spoke louder than usual too. “Am I paying for this?”  
   
 Hinata laughed, shaking his head. “No. You pay when we meet up, now you’re just seeing if you like me – and I’m seeing if I like you.”  
   
 Suga blushed. “Can we talk about this somewhere else?”  
   
 Hinata grinned and let out another laugh. Suga expected him to say no, but he nodded. “Okay. You’re stamped right?”  
   
 “Yeah.”  
   
 Hinata pulled Suga towards the exit. He had to shove past people, but—despite his size—he was pretty good at it. He told the bouncer they were just getting some air and the bouncer nodded at them. He pulled Suga out of the club and the cold night’s breeze waved over them. It was easier to breathe and Hinata took a huge, exaggerated gulp of air.  
   
 Suga smiled, glancing to Hinata’s hand around his wrist. Even if it was minimal, the contact was… nice.  
   
 They walked to the sidewalk and Hinata took a seat on the curb.  
   
 Suga sat next to him and scratched his head.  
   
 “So.” Hinata nudged Suga’s shoulder. “What’s your story?”  
   
 “Huh?”  
   
 “I’m interested in getting to know you too, you know? A lot of the guys and girls I meet are crazy… and I don’t mean dangerous, though there are those too… I make sure I chit-chat online with ‘em for a bit before I meet up face-to-face. I need to know if we’re like, compatible and all, right?”  
   
 “Right,” Suga blurted out. He didn’t know that, but now he did. “Sure. Um. Okay, look… I’m just, how is this different from… I mean, I’m not saying you are one, but how is this different from a, you know…?”  
   
 “Hooker? Whore? Prostitute?”  
   
 “Y-Yeah.” Suga swallowed hard and waved his hand. “I’m not saying you are one, though!”  
   
 Hinata laughed and moved to sit cross-legged. “You’re just paying for my company. I can still refuse sex if I want.”  
   
 “Huh?” Suga’s eyes lit up. “So… then what are dates usually like?”  
   
 “Well, depends. Most of the time we go out, dinner first, maybe a movie.”  
   
 “So people pay you… for that?”  
   
 “Mhm.” Hinata looked at Suga carefully. “You look young, but you’re what… thirty? Forty? Are you going to dine alone at a five star restaurant?”  
   
 “Well…”  
   
 “I’m not saying this is you, Sugar—”  
   
 “—Suga—”  
   
 “—Suga,” Hinata corrected. “But a lot of the men and women I meet? They’re lonely. They’re the lonely ones, for sure. They’re rich but that kind of distances them from normal people. Or they can’t find time for people between their schedule. At your age a lot of friends are gone, or they’re working too much. Or, like Oikawa’s sugar daddy, he’s traveling all the time. It’s still romance—it’s you looking for a romantic companion, at your convenience.”  
   
 “Hm.” Suga smiled. “That’s a wise way to put it.”  
   
 “Yeah, I know, I stole that last line.” Hinata laughed. “It’s on the website.”  
   
 Suga laughed as well, glancing to his lap. “I guess it’s… a lot less, dirty than I thought it would be.”  
   
 “It can be that way,” Hinata admitted. “They tend to pay more too, but… I don’t know.”  
   
 “You’re not into that?”  
   
 “I’ve done it before, but I never found anyone who I wanted to keep going back to if I knew that’s all they wanted.”  
   
 “So… what would you describe as, ideal?”  
   
 “Hmm. My ideal sugar daddy would probably be something… comfortable, something fun.” He smiled, looking up to the stars. “My last good one—she moved away now, for work—we started out with fine dining, then after a few months she was paying me to come over, order pizza, and binge watch like a million T.V. show serieses with her.”  
   
 “Series.”  
   
 “Huh?”  
   
 Suga laughed. “Sorry, plural of series is series.” He didn’t know what to say so he just mumbled another apology. When Hinata laughed, Suga whispered a third one.  
   
 “It’s okay.” Hinata bumped his shoulder against Suga. “But yeah, we ordered a ton of pizza, and then after a while we started baking our own together.”  
   
 “Hm.” Suga thought about it.  
   
 “I’m not saying we have to do that, but it’s about learning about each other, finding out what we have in common, finding things to do together, or doing things we want to but have no one to do it with. It’s like a normal relationship.”  
   
 “With a transaction of money.”  
   
 “Mhm.” Hinata nodded. “But… I don’t know. You’re right, it’s not for everyone, but it works for some people.”  
   
 “I don’t know.”  
   
 Hinata looked at him. “Is your name Suga?”  
   
 “Sugawara,” he offered, “Koushi Sugawara.”  
   
 Hinata grinned.  
   
 “Don’t say it.”  
   
 “Suga’ Daddy!”  
   
 “Please…” Suga paled. “Don’t call me daddy.”  
   
 Hinata grinned even wider. “Don’t worry, I won’t. Not my thing… although I think Oikawa likes it.”  
   
 “More than I wanted to know.”  
   
 Hinata winced. “Sorry!”  
   
 Suga shook his head disapprovingly… although there was a small smile that wouldn’t disappear.  
   
 “You’re cute.”  
   
 Suga blinked. “Sorry?”  
   
 “I said you’re cute.”  
   
 “No way.” Suga frowned. “You’re the cute one.”  
   
 Hinata blinked, perking up. “Really?”  
   
 Suga felt his cheeks warm and his smile just wouldn’t go away damnit. “Yes.”  
   
 “Then come on!”  
   
 “What?”  
   
 Hinata jumped to his feet and pulled Suga up.  
   
 “W-Wait, wh-what?”  
   
 “Let’s dance!”  
   
 “I…”  
   
 “Please?”  
   
 Suga took one look at the way Hinata’s lower lip wibbled and how his eyes looked so big and round and he knew he was doomed.  
   
   
   
 Iwaizumi mixed his drink with the straw that had come with it. His arm was around Oikawa’s shoulder but he focused on his drink. “I don’t think Suga’s going to go for it.”  
   
 “Of course he isn’t.”  
   
 Iwaizumi glanced over.  
   
 “Suga’s too attached to the whole… idea that sugar daddies and sugar babies are gross as fuck. The usual stigma.”  
   
 “Then…” Iwaizumi’s brows furrowed together. “What’s the point?”  
   
 “Simple.” Oikawa grabbed his drink and chugged the rest. He put it down and swallowed. “We plant the seed and the idea grows… in a few days the whole thought of it will be utterly irresistible to him. He’s not getting any younger and Hinata is a hot piece of ass. Even if he’s not looking for sex, just to be around someone young and interested… It’ll ruin him. It’ll ruin his morals. He’ll cave in.”  
   
 “You…” Iwaizumi kissed his neck. “Are manipulative as fuck.”  
   
 “Is that a complaint, Iwa-chan?”  
   
 “Of course not,” he said as he kissed his neck again. “Makes you sexier. I like pretty things with brains.”  
   
 “Are you sure, Iwa-chan? That would make you the uglier and dumber one in our relationship.”  
   
 Iwaizumi backed away and frowned. “Maybe you’re not as smart as I thought.”  
   
 Oikawa burst into laughter.  
   
 Iwaizumi glanced over his shoulder. “You’d think it would be hard to find someone in a crowd, but considering they both have weird hair colours…”  
   
 Oikawa turned around and leaned on the railing. “Where?”  
   
 “There.” He pointed. “Near the back.”  
   
 “Hmm, near the back? You mean—Oh!” Oikawa jumped up a bit. “Found them… Whoa. Suga can dance.”  
   
 “Oh yeah.” Iwaizumi smirked. “He used to be fun when we were younger.”  
   
   
   
 Grinding, dancing, body against body—lights, music—rhythm. The two of them moved to the beat, letting the music guide their bodies. The friction between them was hot and heavy and Suga wrapped his arm around Hinata’s waist, pulling their bodies closer together. The lights spilled over them, different colours bleeding into each other before leaving them in the darkness again.  
   
 Hinata eventually laughed, throwing his arms over Suga’s shoulders.  
   
 “Huh?” Suga paused. “What?”  
   
 “I’ve got a forty year old on me—didn’t think he’d be the best dancer here.”  
   
 “I’m thirty-seven,” Suga corrected quickly, wounded.  
   
 “Sorry!” Hinata moved his hands to Suga’s shoulders and lowered them down to feel his arms. They began dancing again, against one another, feeling each other. It wasn’t necessarily sexual, although not necessarily innocent either. Suga opened his eyes at one point and looked into Hinata’s.  
   
 And when their eyes met, neither could look away.  
   
   
   
 “Hey.” Hinata pulled out his wallet and handed a card. They were outside, where the air was thin and easy. He waved his card in Suga’s face for a while. “Take it.”  
   
 “S-Sorry.” Suga took it. “What is it?”  
   
 “My business card!”  
   
 Iwaizumi glanced over. “You have… a business card?”  
   
 “Kinda.” Hinata shrugged. “It’s actually so much cheaper than you would think!”  
   
 “Um…” Suga looked at the card then back up to him. “Look, you’re nice… but I don’t really know if I can do this.”  
   
 Hinata put his hands behind his back. “I want to see you again.”  
   
 “I…” Suga’s felt a flutter in his chest. “I do too… but…”  
   
 “Think about it!” Hinata shrugged his shoulder. “Just think it over.”  
   
 “Hinata…”  
   
 “If you don’t want to call, that’s cool, but keep my card. Okay?”  
   
 “Okay.”  
   
 Hinata made a peace sign before turning around and walking away.  
   
 Suga watched him leave.  
   
 Iwaizumi stared at the business card. “It looks like a five year old made it.”  
   
 Oikawa pouted. “Meanie.”  
   
 Suga watched Hinata leave until he turned the corner. “Yeah.” He smiled, looking at the card. “It really does.”  
   
 


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Haha, I'm actually really amazed at all the really nice comments everyone left me omg. I'm glad you liked the first chapter, so I hope you enjoy the second!  
> 

 

 Suga poured steaming water into the French Press and grabbed a plastic chopstick. Stirring the ground coffee beans in the water, he watched it swirl. It always gave the coffee a richer flavour, and he wanted good coffee right now. Once a week, Suga was guaranteed off work. Not having to go in was nice; but, after last night, Suga was more pleased that he didn’t have a hangover. Given, he only had one or two drinks so it wasn’t likely, but… you know? Suga only remembered hangovers when he thought about back when he had fun at clubs. Although, it was usually hangover and waking up next to someone he didn’t know.  
   
 Suga rolled his eyes, thinking about his wilder days… or whatever.  
   
 Fuck, he sounded old.  
   
 Suga felt his shoulders ache and he shook his head. The physical discomfort was getting worse. While waiting for his coffee to steep, he poured himself a glass of water and drank slowly. He washed a couple fruits, cutting them into forkable pieces before he filled a bowl with them for breakfast. He grabbed his multivitamin pills and washed it down with water.  
   
 The door opened.  
   
 “Morning,” came a voice.  
   
 “Thanks for knocking,” Suga teased before glancing over. “No boyfriend?”  
   
 “Still asleep,” Iwaizumi muttered. “He’s too cute to wake up when he’s sleeping. Plus, I never knock.” He walked over to the kitchen and opened the fridge.  
   
 “Too cute, huh?” Suga chuckled as he forked a strawberry into his mouth.  
   
 “Shut up.” Iwaizumi looked over his shoulder and shot him a glare. “Plus, yours was cute last night.”  
   
 “He’s not mine,” corrected Suga. Although, he wouldn’t deny Hinata was really cute. _Really_ cute. He zoned out for a moment, letting the images filter through his mind again. “Hm.”  
   
 “You’re smiling like an idiot.”  
   
 Suga blinked.  
   
 Iwaizumi snorted and closed the fridge, opening the freezer. He grabbed a couple frozen waffles and popped them in the toaster. “The way you were all over each other last night said he was yours. Did you kiss him?”  
   
 Suga tried to hide the little taste of disappointment in his voice as he answered, “No.”  
   
 “Hmm. You two were dancing pretty close, though.”  
   
 “Well, I always did.” Suga shrugged and opened his multivitamin again. He shook a pill onto the cap then offered it. “Here.”  
   
 Iwaizumi tossed it in his mouth then snatched Suga’s cup of water to wash it down. “What was it like, being close? That close?”  
   
 Suga looked away for a moment. “Nice… really nice. I missed it.”  
   
 “What? Grinding on a guy?”  
   
 “No, not that.”  
   
 “Then what?”  
   
 “Just… I don’t know…”  
   
 Iwaizumi pointed at the French Press. “That done?”  
   
 “Huh?” Suga’s eyes followed his hand. “Oh, yeah, probably.”  
   
 Iwaizumi grabbed the top and pressed it down, filtering the coffee beans out of the coffee. “Fun?” He poured in two mugs. “Is that what you missed? Having fun, I mean.”  
   
 “Well…” Suga knew it was a yes, but he settled for a “Maybe.” He glanced over his kitchen counter and grabbed the colourful ‘business’ card Hinata had given him last night. “Hm…”  
   
 “Are you thinking about it?”  
   
 “No.”  
   
 “You are, aren’t you?”  
   
 Sugawara sighed. “Yeah, I am.” A pause. “What…? I mean, how much is like… just one date?”  
   
 “Depends,” Iwaizumi said in a sigh. He grabbed the milk and sugar and began making the two coffees to their preferences. “Depends on his rates, depends on whether he’s got other sugar daddies or not. A lot of it is really, personalised. Like Oikawa and I, we have a different arrangement that works for us. Oikawa’s got others, too, to cover his expenses.”  
   
 “Weird,” Suga muttered.  
   
 “Yeah, you said that already. Here.” He offered a mug.  
   
 “Thanks.” Suga grabbed the handle and took a sip. “What should I do?”  
   
 “Just text him already.”  
   
 “Text?”  
   
 “Welcome to the digital age, old man.”  
   
 “I’m thirty.”  
   
 “Thirty-seven,” Iwaizumi corrected.  
   
 “I’m in my thirties.”  
   
 “Late thirties,” Iwaizumi corrected. “I can call you old if I want.”  
   
 “We’re the same age,” Suga pointed out.  
   
 The door opened again with a very upbeat, perky _“Goooood morning!”_  
   
 The toaster popped out the waffles. Iwaizumi turned around and put them on two plates, handing one to Oikawa.  
   
 “Awww.” Oikawa kissed his cheek. “Thank you, Iwa-chan.”  
   
 “Stop calling me that.”  
   
 “Okay Iwa-chan!” Oikawa took a seat at the bar and crossed his legs. Suga offered him the maple syrup, butter, a couple jams, whatever he wanted and Oikawa grinned. “I love your kitchen, Sugar Sweetie!” (A faint and ignored “Don’t call him that!” came from Iwaizumi’s direction.) “It’s even got real maple syrup, none of that fructose garbage Iwa-chan buys all the time. Fancy life.”  
   
 Suga laughed, much to his best friend’s dismay (and to be fair Iwaizumi just called him old so he was allowed). “I’m glad you like it.”  
   
 “I do!” Oikawa’s smile dropped and a serious face took over. “So, going to talk to Hinata?”  
   
 The shift wasn’t lost on Suga. He swallowed hard. “I guess I could try… just, how… uh, how legal is this?”  
   
 “The relationships are hundred percent legal,” replied Oikawa.  
   
 “Really?”  
   
 “Mhm. Keyword: Relationship. Got it? Prostitutes and hookers are a one-time thing, you know.” He made a crude hand motion to simulate a handjob before yelling “Pew!” at Iwaizumi as the climactic finish.  
   
 “Don’t do that.”  
   
 “Anyway,” Oikawa continued, “There is the relationship and friendship element to these relationships. Iwa-chan and I go to dinner together, we’re travel partners, we meet up for coffee. We’re more than acquaintances, we’re friends. Legally, anyway, I’m pretty sure he hates my guts. In the court of law, gifts among friends—even money, even sex—is legal. Sugar relationships are built on respect. If every meeting is sex, and sex-only, then that’s a prostitute. That’s a problem.”  
   
 Iwaizumi glanced over to Suga. “Don’t expect sex on the first date either.”  
   
 “Yep yep.” Oikawa nodded. “Now, man up and message him already.”  
   
 Iwaizumi grabbed Suga’s phone and handed it over. “Just do it.”  
   
 Sugawara sighed and grabbed the phone. “Okay, I guess.”  
   
  _[Koushi Sugawara: Hey, this is Sugawara (Suga). I had fun last night… I’m not sure where I’m going with this, but I think I’m interested for a date?]_  
   
 He sent it off and sighed. “There.”  
   
 “Wait, wait.” Oikawa’s spine went straight and he wasn’t even in the mood to say it was the first straight thing about him. “What did you say?”  
   
 Sugawara turned his phone towards them.  
   
 “Ugh.” Oikawa slumped in his chair.  
   
 Iwaizumi narrowed his eyes. “Weak.”  
   
 Nonetheless, he got a reply.  
   
  _[Shouyou Hinata: sure! i had a lot of fun too :3 i'm free this weekend]_  
   
 Suga showed his phone to them again with a smile on his face.  
   
 “Go for it.” Oikawa offered a thumbs-up  
   
 “Geez, okay.” Suga hovered his thumbs over the keyboard. “Back in my day, we didn’t text for this kind of stuff… What should I do?”  
   
 “Well.” Iwaizumi tilted his head. “When do you have off? Saturdays, right?”  
   
 “Yeah.”  
   
 “Ooo, good.” Oikawa put his hands together. “Why not just pick a restaurant you like and meet him there?”  
   
 Iwaizumi offered his boyfriend a cup of coffee.  
   
 “Thank you, Iwa-chan.”  
   
 Sugawara ignored the banter-to-come between the sugar-lovebirds and typed another message.  
   
  _[Koushi Sugawara: Sorry, I’m kind of new at this and Oikawa’s helping me through the whole… process. How about we go for dinner and just, talk about what we’re looking for in this relationship? Figure it out. That sort of thing?]_  
   
 He sipped his coffee and got a reply.  
   
  _[Shouyou Hinata: thats totally cool!! as a kind of rule my first dates always have to be in like public places? dinners cool tho any time/place?]_  
   
 “I forgot to say Saturday,” Suga muttered before he looked up. “Should I take him to Flynn’s?”  
   
 Oikawa whistled. “Talk about high-class dining.”  
   
 “Sure.” Iwaizumi nodded. “Just make sure he knows to dress right.”  
   
 Suga nodded.  
   
  _[Koushi Sugawara: How about next Saturday, Flynn’s Steakhouse, 8pm? It’s a semi-formal place, if that’s alright?]_  
   
  _[Shouyou Hinata: yep thats totally okay!! been there before :3]_  
   
 Sugawara smiled, feeling Hinata’s energy through the text. “What does the three mean?” He showed his screen to Oikawa.  
   
 “Oh, that’s the kitty face.”  
   
 “Huh?”  
   
 “Mew mew.”  
   
 “That doesn’t really explain anything, Oikawa.” Suga shook his head but figured the smiley face was kind of cute even if he didn’t really get it.  
   
  _[Koushi Sugawara: Great! Should I pick you up around 7:45?]_  
   
  _[Shouyou Hinata: i'd rather transport myself, actually.]_  
   
 Sugawara paled. “He used a period, and a comma. Uh, I asked if I could pick him up and he said he wants to transport himself.”  
   
 “Mhm.” Oikawa nodded. “That’s normal. Sugar babies like being independent. Having some support from a sugar daddy and being completely dependent on them are totally different… Also, it’s probably not wise to get in a stranger’s car. I’m sure he’ll let you drive him ‘round when he gets to know you more.”  
   
 “Oh, okay.” Suga nodded, made sense.  
   
  _[Koushi Sugawara: That’s fine. I’m looking forward to next week! :)]_  
   
  _[Shouyou Hinata: mee toooo!!]_  
   
 Suga took a deep breath and put his phone down. “Well, I did it. Go me.”  
   
 “Now you have to work out the fun part,” Oikawa said, teasing element returning to his voice, “Money. Don’t forget, this is also a financial relationship. It might feel a little weird, but it’s best if money is an open, honest topic you guys can talk about.”  
   
 “Okay.” Suga paled. “How much does an average relationship cost, anyway? How much does he expect?”  
   
 “Well,” Iwaizumi sighed. “Like I said earlier, different relationships deal with it differently. Some are pay-per-meets, others pay monthly in an agreement to meet a certain amount of times. Others.” Iwaizumi used two fingers to nip Oikawa’s cheek, to which Oikawa blew him a kiss. Iwaizumi countered by flicking his forehead, which caused Oikawa to scream. Iwaizumi actually smiled. “What was I saying? Sorry… Others, have unique relationships.”  
   
 “Okay.” Suga winced. “That doesn’t really help.”  
   
 “Well, with Hinata…” Iwaizumi thought about it for a moment. “You’re getting it all, really. He’s young, cute, fun, funny… and you seem pretty comfortable around him, right?”  
   
 “Yeah, I am.” Sugawara nodded. “So he’s going to be pricey? How much should I go for?”  
   
 “Well, we have to start with you,” Oikawa said. “Is money a problem for you?”  
   
 “Not really.” It was an understatement. “I’m probably sitting on my retirement fund if I wanted to quit now.”  
   
 Oikawa cocked his head to the side. “Then why don’t you?”  
   
 “Well… what would be the point? I’m good at what I do, people like me doing it, I like doing it, and plus all my friends are working—most of my friends are my coworkers anyway so I would just end up… alone.”  
   
 “It clicked.” Oikawa grinned. “Companionship is nice, isn’t it? You can get that with Hinata. Even if there’s a dollar sign on it, that doesn’t mean it’s going to be any less fun. You’ll be able to tell if he’s forcing himself to be with you. Even if you throw a wad of cash at ‘em, he’ll leave to find someone else. Plus, with a bod’ like that, mmm.”  
   
 “He’d leave, just like that, huh?” Suga blinked. “Huh…”  
   
 “Well.” Iwaizumi sipped his coffee. “Is that any different from a normal relationship? You and I are in the same boat. What the fuck is this ‘free time’ everyone else seems to have, right? We’re worked like dogs. How many guys have left you because you couldn’t give them what they wanted? Time. You couldn’t meet their needs, so they left. I’m sure they’ve found someone else by now. It’s just that the ‘needs’ and ‘wants’ of the relationship are more realistic and dependable.”  
   
 “Hm.” Suga nodded very slowly. “I guess.”  
   
 “Well.” Oikawa had finished his waffle and forked some of Suga’s forgotten fruits before popping them in his mouth. After chewing, “What’s the most you think you’ll want to pay per meet up?”  
   
 “Uh.” Suga shrugged. “Five hundred? Is that a lot?”  
   
 “It’s not bad. Probably going to end up paying a little more for Hinata, though. He’s good. So, maybe…” Oikawa waved his fork around in the air as he thought. “Start with offering two-fifty, or three hundred.”  
   
 “Yeah?” Suga tilted his head. “Why?”  
   
 “Well, Hinata knows his game. He might not be a business lord like Iwa-chan, but he knows what he’s doing. He’ll probably double your offer to around six hundred, which is pretty good. You’ll probably negotiate back and forth a bit, but it’ll be fun. Don’t give too much info about you yet, though, okay? He’s not going to sell himself short; he’s not going to let you take advantage of him. In that same way, don’t lay it on thick that you have money to burn; don’t let him take advantage of you.”  
   
 “Hm.” Suga scratched his head. “I guess as long as I’m keeping it under a thousand I’ll probably be up for it. Well, let’s see how much of this I remember…”  
   
   
   
 A week had come and gone faster than Suga expected. He had texted Hinata several times through the week, usually short bursts of conversations, nothing too exciting. He was waiting at the table at Flynn’s. He wore a suit with a black tie, dressed up for the occasion, and a small flutter of a fear whispered in his ear that maybe Hinata wouldn’t show up. He had been wanting to take someone, _anyone,_ out to dinner for a while; only to be stood up it seemed. Suga wiggled a bit in his chair, resisting the urge to grab his phone and text Hinata eighteen times.  
   
 But soon enough, he saw his waiter walking towards him. The waiter was a tall man, in his twenties, but probably closer to thirty than twenty. “Your table is here.”  
   
 Suga’s stopped breathing.  
   
 Yeah, Suga had pondered what Hinata would look like at a semi-formal event but holy shit he didn’t realise the box he just opened had Pandora’s name on it.  
   
 Hinata had messy orange hair, but it seemed a little more… organised this time. His brown eyes seemed even more alive than Suga remembered. Wearing a sharp black suit as well, the well-made fabric was fitting; it hugged Hinata’s sides in a way that was probably made for skinnier, if not more lithe men. His white undershirt had the top two buttons on his collar popped open, and his loose tie was an orange only a shade darker than his hair.  
   
 When they made eye contact—they smiled.  
   
 Sugawara stood up. “Hinata.”  
   
 “Hi.” Hinata’s smile widened to a grin. “Do I get a hug?”  
   
 “Of course.” Suga laughed before pulling him close. Feeling Hinata’s soft cheek against his, he couldn’t help but notice the smell of Hinata’s cologne that caught his nose. It was warm, sweet—with a touch of spice. Saffron, Suga identified, mixed with vanilla and something else. Floral, and while not necessarily feminine it was a world away from masculine, with a delicate touch of spice. Suga pulled away and looked Hinata over. Yeah. That fit. “You look good in a suit.”  
   
 “That’s what I should be saying.” Hinata grinned and went on his toes to kiss Suga’s cheek. “You’re not half-bad yourself, Mister.”  
   
 Suga chuckled and soon the two of them took their seats, menus flipping open. He grabbed his glass of water and took a sip.  
   
 Hinata looked up. “I’m just gonna say this but I have a suit kink and you’re really really really nice to look at right now.”  
   
 Suga choked, coughing into his water.  
   
 “Ack!” Hinata’s spine went straight.  
   
 Suga grabbed his napkin and laughed, wiping himself off. “Well now…”  
   
 “Sorry.” Hinata winced, closing one eye.  
   
  “It’s alright.” Suga put his napkin back on his lap. Luckily he didn’t spill his water or anything drastic. “I just, well…”  
   
 “No, I get it, you’d rather take it slow.” Hinata put his hands up defensively. “I get that; nothing wrong with that.”  
   
 “Thank you.” Suga nodded, feeling oddly… comfortable. Comfortable with Hinata, but also comfortable in his own skin. The way Hinata was looking at him, like he was a shining beacon (or bacon even) of handsome made Suga feel oddly… sexy. He’d given up on feeling sexy soon after his thirtieth birthday, but hey—whatever floats the boat, right? “Don’t look at the prices.”  
   
 “Mhm,” Hinata hummed in a teasing tune. “Maybe I’ll go for the most expensive thing here!”  
   
 “Sure.” Suga grinned, been a while since he’d treated anyone. He glanced through the menu items, noting how each main dish was between thirty and fifty dollars. Usually he’d say ouch, but it was nice to go fine dining every once in a while (as long as every once in a while wasn’t more than once a month). He flipped the page and noticed he felt… relaxed. He was comfortable, but he was also relaxed.  
   
 He had expected it to be weird.  
   
 But it wasn’t.  
   
 Or at least not yet.  
   
 He expected his shoulders to feel tense, hands to sweat, heart rate to increase, but he was…  
   
 He was good.  
   
 He was okay.  
   
 Hinata flipped the page and hummed, very concentrated on the task at hand.  
   
 Suga noted the adorable face Hinata made when he was focusing and the thought of how bad he just wanted to yank him and press their lips together, or maybe what it would be like to have Hinata on his knees sucking him o—No, no, be good, focus Suga. Focus. Sugawara flipped the page. “The appetisers are quite nice too.”  
   
 “A three course meal?” Hinata’s eyes lit up, smile brighter than that of gods.  
   
 It was an illegal smile.  
   
 Suga was pretty sure Cupid was doing something with an arrow through his heart—a voice in the back of his head reminded him that would mean Suga would need extensive surgery and his coworkers would be under a lot of stress trying to make sure he was okay.  
   
 That was a bad train of thought.  
   
 “You’re very pretty,” Suga blurted out.  
   
 Hinata’s blinked once, twice. “What.” His cheeks flushed a light pink.  
   
 Suga had to wonder if Hinata was blushing before he realised he was blushing. Blinking once, “Sorry. Was that weird?”  
   
 “N-No.” Hinata smiled again. “It was unexpected, but… thank you.”  
   
 “You’re welcome.” Suga wasn’t sure if he was an idiot or not, but Hinata was smiling and he was pretty sure he wanted to spoil that smile with an eighteen course meal if he could. “Sorry.”  
   
 “No, no.” Hinata shook his head. “I mean it, thank you. That was very sweet.”  
   
 Suga smiled, still feeling like an idiot, but… His last boyfriend had brushed off all compliments, so the fact that Hinata was taking it—and sincerely—meant a lot.  
   
 “Pretty,” Hinata repeated. “That’s a first.”  
   
 “Really?”  
   
 “Well, I get cute, and sweet a lot. But not pretty… Yeah, sorry.”  
   
 “Why are you apologising?”  
   
 “I don’t know!”  
   
 Sugawara laughed and grinned. “You’re very cute too, and funny.”  
   
 Hinata’s pink cheeks burned red and he looked away. “Okay don’t be a douchebag.”  
   
 Sugawara laughed even louder and looked down to the menu. “I’m sorry.”  
   
 Hinata grinned again.  
   
 The waiter returned. “Can I get you any drinks?”  
   
 “Just water,” Hinata said quickly, maybe a bit too quickly.  
   
 Sugawara was going to offer wine, but this was still their first meeting. Maybe Hinata had his defences up?—a sort of distance? “Water’s fine for me too.” Realistically, Suga knew it was smart and probably a good thing Hinata had his defences up (if that’s what it was; he could be wrong), but he couldn’t help but wonder if that would disappear with time. Suga realised half the date was probably happening in his head so he spoke: “Do you know what you want as an appetiser?”  
   
  “Oh well.” Hinata flipped to the first page and pointed. “They have oysters, but they’re kind of a rip off… unless we get half a dozen and share? If you’re cool with that.”  
   
 “Oysters,” Sugawara repeated. He smiled. “Sure.”  
   
 Hinata blinked. “What?”  
   
 “Huh?”  
   
 “You were looking at me all funny.”  
   
 “Oh, sorry.” Sugawara waved his hand in apology. “I just didn’t expect you to like oysters. They’re usually seen as a high-class kind of food… Not that you’re not high-class or anything like that!”  
   
 Hinata cracked up into a laughing fit. “Nah, it’s okay! My grandpa used to catch oysters by hand, though—they’re all wiggly and yucky, but they taste good. Totally gross, though, but I love ‘em.”  
   
 Suga laughed. He wasn’t fancy at all. It was… refreshing. His laugh filled him, filled his lungs, and it felt easier to breathe—like Hinata was a breath of fresh air, almost.  
   
 “That’s not weird, is it?” Hinata actually looked worried. “We don’t have to get oysters if you don’t want.”  
   
 “No, I actually like them a lot.”  
   
 When the waiter returned, he glanced to Hinata. “Have we decided?”  
   
 “I have.”  
   
 “Me too.” Suga nodded. “You first.”  
   
 “Aww, shucks.” Hinata grinned. “So polite. Half a dozen oysters to start for the two of us.”  
   
 “What kind?” asked the waiter.  
   
 “You can decide,” Suga said with a smile.  
   
 “Of oysters?” Hinata winced. “Uhh, I don’t know the types, but there’s like the… kinda citrusy ones?”  
   
 “Flat oysters,” offered Suga.  
   
 “A wise choice,” the waiter said as he wrote it down.  
   
 “Yeah.” Sugawara nodded to Hinata. “Those are my favourite.” Hinata’s grin returned, and Suga swore he could imagine little orange puppy ears at the top of his head.  
   
 “And for main course?”  
   
 “Oh.” Hinata flipped the page. “The seared halibut with steamed celery hearts.”  
   
 The waiter nodded and turned to Suga.  
   
 “I’ll have the lamb chops with braised red cabbage, please.”  
   
 The waiter wrote it all down and left.  
   
 “I’m surprised,” Sugawara said in a teasing voice, “I thought you were going for the most expensive meal.”  
   
 Hinata looked at him, mildly confused before, “Oh! I was kidding.” He laughed. The halibut was moderately priced at forty-two dollars, while the most expensive meal—a steak, of course—was sixty-eight dollars. Needless to say, the restaurant went months without someone ordering it. “But I was lucky to go for the flat oysters, they’re your favourite and even the waiter said it was a wise choice.”  
   
 “I’m pretty sure waiters are supposed to say that no matter what you order.”  
   
 “Huh?” Hinata’s eyes widened, betrayal pouring in and worry shaking his core. “Really?”  
   
 “Uh, yep. Sorry.”  
   
 “But you were serious when you said they were your fav’, right?”  
   
 “Yes, I was.” Suga grinned, watching Hinata slowly relax. “Don’t worry. My friend, Iwaizumi, loves the briny oysters. I’m not a fan of them.”  
   
 “Briny?”  
   
 “Yeah, briny is just a fancy way of saying salty. But it’s salty the way the sea is salty.”  
   
 “Ooo, you’re pretty smart.”  
   
   
   
 The oysters came on a bed of ice and they were served with mignonette—a traditional sauce made from red wine vinegar, shallots, garlic, and a dash of black pepper—and several slices of lemons and limes. Hinata had plenty of fun shaking them and watching them wiggle. “Creepy and delicious,” he had said at one point. Suga laughed, and soon enough they had three each and the tray of ice was taken away.  
   
 “So.” Hinata looked at him. “You’re a doctor?”  
   
 “Yeah. I work at Say Saint Hospital, head of the E.R.”  
   
 “Whoa.” Hinata blinked once, twice. “That place is _smack_ dab in the middle of downtown, right?”  
   
 “Yeah… we get a lot of patients. I don’t get much time off, actually.”  
   
 “Are you going to get paged back or something?”  
   
 “Not tonight. It’s a pretty large hospital, biggest in the region, so I have three vice-heads under me.”  
   
 “I didn’t know hospitals had three of those.”  
   
 “They don’t, but there was a need so we created the job. I also have one day a week guaranteed off since I work too much, apparently.”  
   
 “That’s nice of them.” Hinata smiled, but the smile was forced. There was worry in his eyes. “That’s really cool, though. You’re helping people every day. I wish I could do something like that.”  
   
 “You can,” Suga offered.  
   
 “Well, I want to!” Hinata made a fist and his eyes burned with determination. “But…” He deflated. “I’ve gotta get a degree for what I want to do, and that’s years away.”  
   
 Suga tilted his head. “Is that why you’re into the whole… sugar business?”  
   
 “Yeah.” Hinata nodded. “Well, that, and other expenses.” Hinata noted how Suga’s smile became lopsided and he cocked his head. “You okay?”  
   
 “Uh, yeah.” Suga scratched his cheek. “General tips from Oikawa says I should talk about that, the whole sugar thing, money.”  
   
 “Well.” Hinata nodded again. “I think it’s important to have it out in the open, you know? Something we can feel comfortable talking about.”  
   
 “You’re right, I’m just… what’s the word?”  
   
 “Adjusting?”  
   
 Suga had wanted to use a meaner word, but that worked, so he nodded. “How much are you expecting per meet up, exactly?”  
   
 “I usually leave it to the ‘man’ to make the financial choices.”  
   
 “Do you use that line on your sugar mommies too?”  
   
 “Yep.” Hinata grinned. “I don’t play the first card—my rule.”  
   
  _That_ grin was different than the other ones Suga had seen. It was devious. Foxy. There was a strange light behind his eyes too. Hinata was dangerous. Suga just offered a gentle smile. “The max I’ll see you is once a week, so I was thinking around two-fifty a meet up?”  
   
 “Hmm. I was hoping more like, I don’t know, seven-fifty.”  
   
 Suga almost winced, but he kept himself composed. He felt his heart beat a little faster. Oikawa wasn’t kidding when he used the word negotiation. The longer Hinata looked at him, the clearer it became: Instead of fighting fire with fire, he was fighting fire with inexperience. But, he could work this out. “Maybe five hundred?” If he doubled his offer, maybe Hinata would back off a bit?  
   
 Hinata’s face became unreadable. “Six-fifty?”  
   
 Sugawara’s right index finger twitched. “Six hundred.”  
   
 “Deal.” Hinata smile’s was still the dark one. “For this month anyway.”  
   
 Sugawara smirked.  
   
 Hinata grinned. “You look like you’re having fun.”  
   
 “I’m sorry.” Suga scratched the back of his head. “I have to admit, I thought you were just a pretty fun thing… you’re actually very intelligent too.”  
   
 “Aha.” Hinata’s eyes widened for a moment before returning to their usual size. “Nah, I’m just a people’s person.”  
   
 Sugawara felt a weight lift from his shoulders. “Or maybe you’re just my person.”  
   
 Hinata laughed. “Territorial, huh?”  
   
 “For now. So, how many other daddies do you have?”  
   
 “Hmm. Beside you, I’ve only got one stable one right now but I only see him twice a week, so not often.”  
   
 “Twice a week?” Suga blinked.  
   
 “Ack—No!” Hinata hopped in his seat. “I—I mean, the other one: Once every two weeks”  
   
 Sugawara laughed again. When sexy and dangerous melted away—dork remained. He couldn’t help but wonder if that was a representation—a microcosm—of who Hinata was. Was the sexy sugar baby just one side of his real dorky self? More than anything, Suga realised, he wanted to find out.  
   
   
   
 Dinner was served and soon they opened up the dessert menu. All the while they talked, small talk, sharing little snippets of their life and their work. Suga noted Hinata didn’t share too much about himself, again the distance, and he half-wondered if he should stop being as transparent, but before he knew it the bill came—he paid, tipped high—and they walked out of the restaurant.  
   
 The sky was dark, stars were out, and Suga was surprised to find out it was only ten. The air was cold, frosty even, and Suga tightened the black-blue scarf he had brought around himself. He glanced to Hinata, silently but happily walking at his side. “I get that you don’t want to get into a stranger’s car, but I figure I’d offer you a ride if you want one.”  
   
 “That’s okay.” Hinata grin, hand cupped the inside of Suga’s arm. “I’ll be fine.”  
   
 “Okay.” Suga smiled. “Do you want me to call you a cab? You’re not walking, are you?”  
   
 “No, no.” Hinata shook his head. “I’m taking the bus since it’s.” He pointed down the road to the bus stop. “Going to be right there soon enough.” He pulled out his phone. “In two minutes, if it’s on time.” He looked down the road and saw it coming. “Oh, hey, there it is actually.” He turned to Suga, a little sad. “Guess this is goodbye, huh?”  
   
  _Kiss him._  
   
 Suga tugged his scarf off and slowly looped it around Hinata’s neck.  
   
  _Kiss him._  
   
 Hinata nuzzled the scarf, smile turning a little shy as he looked up. “Thank you.”  
   
  _Kiss him._  
   
 “Stay warm, okay?”  
   
  _Kiss him._  
   
 “I will.” Hinata grabbed Suga’s sleeves, propping himself up a bit. “I’d like to see you again. I mean that.”  
   
  _Kiss him._  
   
 “Yeah. I’ll talk to you soon.”  
   
  _Kiss him._  
   
  _Kiss him._  
   
  _Kiss him._  
   
 Suga leaned in, eyes closing slightly. Hinata screwed his eyes shut and leaned up. Their lips were only millimetres away and they—  
   
 A bus passed them.  
   
 “Shit!” Hinata broke away and began running. “Wait! Wait! _Wait!”_  
   
 The bus came to a stop.  
   
 Hinata hopped in before sticking his head out and waving to Suga.  
   
 Suga waved back, stupidest smile on the planet forming on his lips.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don't think I've mentioned this, but thank you to Seksee who has been beta'ing this fic. Any remaining mistakes are my own. Anyway, here's Chapter 3, please enjoy!
> 
> BY THE WAY holy shit 1000 hits and 100 kudos this is only Chapter 3 omg thank you all so much. <3
> 
> * * *

 Steam rose from his mug as he stared at his kitchen. He went with tea that morning, just a standard earl grey, a single cup from a teabag because he didn’t really want to make a pot with steeped leaves. He stared at the kitchen, to the regular irregular sitting at the island counter on a barstool. “Hey,” Suga said softly.  
   
 “Hi.” Oikawa looked up from his bowl of cereal. “What?”  
   
 Suga shook his head, crossing the distance. “Nothing. It’s just a bit weird to see you here… I mean it’s usually Iwaizumi and you, or just Iwaizumi.”  
   
 “Ohhh.” Oikawa stirred his cereal with a teasing smile. “Am I unwelcome, Mister Refreshing?”  
   
 “What?”  
   
 Oikawa just smiled.  
   
 “Weirdo.” Suga rolled his eyes, small smile tugging at the corner of his lips. “No, I don’t mind. Is Iwaizumi asleep or something?”  
   
 “Nah, he was here earlier actually. He just left for work.”  
   
 Suga blinked. “Did he just not say hi to me?”  
   
 “Nope.” Oikawa grinned.  
   
 Suga rolled his eyes again. “Jerk.” He turned to the stove, where he noticed his teapot. Inside the glass teapot was a flower. Originally tied in a ball by strings of jasmine green leaves, the hot water let it ‘bloom’ underwater. Suga stared at it for a while. Oikawa had made a noise, which Suga didn’t register, so it wasn’t until he felt a poke that he glanced over. “Huh?”  
   
 “I used one of the blooming teas. Is that okay?”  
   
 “Yeah, that’s fine.” Suga smiled. “It’s been a while since I’ve seen it…” He looked back, watching the minor movements of the leaves underwater. “I was just thinking, how would Hinata react to seeing it?”  
   
 “Oh?” Oikawa grinned. “You like him a lot don’t you? Got a crush on him?”  
   
 “Pfft.” Suga shook his head. “I don’t think ‘crush’ is the right word to be honest. But, I enjoy his company, his companionship or whatever. It’s like going on a date with a good friend… like I’ve known him for a long time, but it’s also like meeting someone new? There’s so much to learn about him, and I just… It’s kind of exciting. A kind of exciting I didn’t really think I would feel again, you know?”  
   
 Oikawa’s signature smile never faltered. “And that was just one date?”  
   
 “Well, yeah. We texted though… He also called me last night.”  
   
 “Oh, did he now?”  
   
 “Yeah, he… he said he wanted to hear my voice, or something. I think he had a fight with his best friend, but he didn’t tell me too much about it. He just wanted to talk and get his mind off of it for a while.”  
   
 “Oh wow, you two are all smitten with each other huh?”  
   
 Suga winced. “Could you stop using weird words all the time?”  
   
 “Smitten, kitty face, mew mew, Mister Refreshing.”  
   
 “How does Iwaizumi stand you?”  
   
 “I give good head.”  
   
 “I bet.” Suga rolled his eyes. “You’d have to.”  
   
 “Ouch!” Oikawa snorted. “Wow, snark from you—playful snark, even.”  
   
 “Shut up.” Suga grabbed his phone to distract himself, which was open on his conversation with Hinata. “Oh, by the way.” He pushed the phone forward. “What’s this smiley face?”  
   
  _[Shouyou Hinata: :-*]_  
   
 “Aww.” Oikawa laughed. “That’s the kissy face. He gave you a kiss.”  
   
 “Aww,” Suga said with the biggest smile.  
   
 “Sooo…” Oikawa’s voice went low as his face became oddly serious. “Did you kiss him?”  
   
 Suga’s face drew into a pout and he looked at his phone. “Well, he texted me the kissy face…”  
   
 “Weak, man. Your game is weak.”  
   
 “Shut up.” Suga kept pouting. “We were _going_ to… but his bus came, and he ran, and yeah.”  
   
 “Uhuh.”  
   
 “I’m serious.”  
   
 “Uhuh—Anyway. It’s almost been a week since your first date. Come on, Sugar Sweetie, spill the beans. What’s going on with you two?”  
   
 “Oh, well.” Sugawara shrugged. “We’ve decided to meet for about six hundred, in cash, as a stable rate. I’ve yet to actually, you know, pay him, but I think I’m getting used to it.” He sighed. “It’s just, hard, to adjust to, you know?”  
   
 “Mhm.” Oikawa sipped from his mug.  
   
 Suga noticed the mug was raised high as Oikawa drank so he grabbed the pot. “More tea?”  
   
 “Please.”  
   
 Sugawara filled the mug then looked at his own. There was still some earl grey left; he better finish it. “Six hundred. Is that good?”  
   
 “Mm, not bad.” Oikawa nodded. “What’s he using it for?”  
   
 “Uh… should I know that?”  
   
 “Probably.” Oikawa shrugged. “Honesty’s the best policy right?”  
   
 “Hmm.” Suga noded. “I’ll ask, maybe.”  
   
 “Suit yourself. Anyway.” He slipped off the chair and did a little twirl. He wore a light blue, buttoned-up shirt, with top collars popped open. He wore a pair of tight black skinny jeans, hugging his thighs just right. “I got a date with another sugar daddy… How do I look? Seriously.”  
   
 “Good.” Suga nodded. “Really good. Who’s this guy?”  
   
 Oikawa made a weird face, one Suga couldn’t really understand. “Wakatoshi… Ushijima.” Oikawa looked away for a moment. “I kind of… don’t want to go.”  
   
 Suga eyed him carefully. “Why?”  
   
 “Just,” Oikawa whispered, “Don’t tell Hajime.”  
   
 Suga’s jaw tightened. He knew Oikawa didn’t use Iwaizumi’s first name, ever. It was either Iwaizumi when he was serious, or Iwa-chan when he was playful. “What’s this guy like?”  
   
 “Ushijima?” Oikawa shrugged, looking up slowly. “He’s blunt, really blunt, and to the point. It’s actually kind of refreshing. He’s really buff too, and taller than me—which, you know, kinda saying something ‘cause I’m six feet tall, so it’s nice to have a guy that’s… more, kind of… the stereotypical, ‘man’, that makes me feel more like the typical…” Oikawa cringed. “Girl? Is that weird?”  
   
 “Not at all.”  
   
 “Really?”  
   
 “Why would it be?”  
   
 “Well I don’t know.” Oikawa scratched his cheek. “Shouldn’t, well, like, you know, shouldn’t I want to break away from… sort of, normal, heterosexual kind of relationships?”  
   
 “Hm.” Suga thought about how to answer it as he finished his earl grey. He poured the blooming tea in his mug and hummed again. “I think some people want to break away, and that’s okay. Some don’t, and that’s also okay.” Suga looked at him. “Is that really the only thing bothering you?”  
   
 Oikawa pursed his lips, left eye twitching, before he unleashed a heavy sigh.  
   
 Sugawara stared for a moment, a long moment, reminding himself that Oikawa was really only twenty-one despite how mature he acted (when he was being serious, anyway). “What is it?”  
   
 “Okay, it’s just… Ushijima is, I think he’s getting a little too attached to me. And I think I like him, like I mean, I like him, like I _like_ him, like I like-like him. Like I could easily see him being my… husband, even, maybe. And I think that’s the general direction he wants to go with me. And it would be great, and I would love it. I’d be rich and I’d get to do what I want, total trophy wife, and I could finally stop fucking sleeping around with these sleazy men and everything would be so perfect, but I just…”  
   
 Suga listened.  
   
 Oikawa sighed. “I think, I think I’m getting attached.”  
   
 “To Ushijima?”  
   
 “To…” Oikawa looked down. “Hajime.”  
   
 Suga sipped his tea, noting the small creases in Oikawa’s flawless skin, crow’s feet at the eyes, wrinkles on the forehead, so unlike him.  
   
 Oikawa grabbed his mug of tea, fingers curling around the heat. “I… That would mean, I’d stop seeing Hajime. And, I think I don’t want that.”  
   
 “Well… are you afraid you’ll lose Iwaizumi’s companionship? You can still be friends after. Or… are you afraid you won’t get to be as close to him as you are now?”  
   
 “I don’t know,” he admitted. “I just don’t know anything, really.”  
   
 “Hm. Well, Oikawa… I’m not exactly sure how these relationships work, but I think Iwaizumi will miss you too.”  
   
 “Nah.” A sharp snort left him as he shook his head. “Bet he’d love to get rid of me.”  
   
 “Don’t lie.” Suga shook his head. “Not to me, not to yourself. You know he enjoys having you as a friend, as a companion, and maybe – maybe – as more. I don’t know what’s going on in his head… I never have; and, probably, I never will. He’s very… subtly, complex, I guess. You know?”  
   
 “Uhuh.” Oikawa nodded slowly. “You can say that again.” He made eye-contact with Suga before letting out a long, drawn-out whiney sigh.  
   
 Suga laughed and cocked his head. “Well, can I offer advice?” When Oikawa nodded, Suga went on: “Don’t rush it. Don’t rush it until you’re sure, because you’re going to find the answer later on anyway, and then it might be too late. So just, chill, and try to find out what’s really going on. More than just what’s good for your finances, but what’s good for you.”  
   
 “You’re right.” Oikawa smiled. “Thank you, Sugawara.”  
   
 Suga was pretty sure that was the first time Oikawa said his name properly.  
   
   
   
  _[Koushi Sugawara: Can I ask you something?]_  
   
  _[Shouyou Hinata: sure!]_  
   
  _[Koushi Sugawara: What exactly are you using my money for?]_  
   
  _[Shouyou Hinata: i'm saving up for school]_  
   
  _[Koushi Sugawara: What else? You mentioned other expenses.]_  
   
  _[Shouyou Hinata: well housing clothing food etc basic needs]_  
   
  _[Koushi Sugawara: Anything else?]_  
   
  _[Shouyou Hinata: y do you want to know?]_  
   
  _[Koushi Sugawara: Well, I feel the right to know? I think I should know where my money is going. Plus, it should be an open/honest topic between us. That’s what you said. So where does it go?]_  
   
  _[Shouyou Hinata: Fuck off.]_  
   
   
   
 Yes, Iwaizumi barged into his house many times, but it was weird to be on the other side. He had a spare key and he quickly unlocked the door and walked in. He walked to the living room and looked around. “Hey?”  
   
 “Hey.”  
   
 Suga turned to the couches to see Iwaizumi sitting, staring at him. Oikawa was also there, asleep, head resting on Iwaizumi’s shoulder. Suga gave a crooked smile. “Hey.”  
   
 “You could have knocked.”  
   
 “Sorry.” Suga scratched the back of his head, eyes moving to Oikawa. “I think I pissed off Hinata.”  
   
 “What?” Iwaizumi blinked. “How did you piss Hinata off.”  
   
 “Piss off Hinata,” Suga corrected, “Don’t end with a preposition—Sorry, anyway, well… we were texting. Actually.” He pulled out his phone. “Easier if I just give this to you. Here.”  
   
 “Mm.” Oikawa stirred before lifting his head. “Texting?” He rubbed his eyes and yawned. He felt Iwaizumi kiss the side of his head and he smiled. “Morning.”  
   
 “It’s just before midnight,” muttered Iwaizumi.  
   
 “Well, shit.” Oikawa blinked. “I heard, here.” He reached for the phone.  
   
 “Sorry.” Suga put it in his hand.  
   
 “It’s’okay,” Oikawa mumbled. He rubbed his eyes before they read the conversation. “Ouch.”  
   
 Suga looked left then right then back to them. “What?”  
   
 “Shoulda backed off,” murmured Oikawa.  
   
 Iwaizumi raised an eyebrow. “Yeah… Why were you so curious?”  
   
 “Well, Oikawa said… honesty and stuff.”  
   
 “Okay, yeah.” Oikawa blinked a couple more times. “But don’t go invading his privacy, you butt.”  
   
 Suga winced. “Shit. Did I fuck up?”  
   
 Oikawa saw Iwaizumi open his mouth but he smooshed his hand into Iwa-chan’s face. “Suga Sweety, just leave everything to me, okay?”  
   
 Sugawara stared at him.  
   
 “Come on, I know how to talk to Hinata. I’ll say I fucked up; I didn’t really explain what I meant… which, to be honest, is kinda true.”  
   
   
   
  _[Tooru Oikawa: Yo u butt u free Saturday?]_  
   
  _[Koushi Sugawara: Yes.]_  
   
  _[Tooru Oikawa: Good, double date at Shiro’s, lunchtime. Downtown, don’t be late, and bring $600, or however much you said you’re paying him per meet k?]_  
   
  _[Koushi Sugawara: Sure… did you fix it?]_  
   
  _[Tooru Oikawa: Yes yes I fixed it don’t worry your pretty little head]_  
   
  _[Koushi Sugawara: Thank you.]_  
   
  _[Tooru Oikawa: Nah, it’s what friends do rite?]_  
   
  _[Koushi Sugawara: Right*.]_  
   
  _[Tooru Oikawa: Don’t.]_  
   
  _[Koushi Sugawara: Sorry!]_  
   
   
   
 Sugawara felt anxious, to say the least; his shoulders were aching, so was his neck, and his arms, while his stomach squeezed in on itself. But, he went with it. He said he would put his trust in Oikawa, so that meant (as bad of an idea as it seemed) he had to trust Oikawa. They were to meet at a nice place downtown for sandwiches and coffee. It couldn’t have been more perfect, really; the sun was out, shining, with a gentle breeze. Even with the sun, though, it was chilly.  
   
 Just before he entered the restaurant, he glanced down the sidewalk to see a familiar tuft of orange hair walking his way.  
   
 Hinata was wearing an orange shirt with a thin white sweater over top, sleeves rolled up. Suga’s scarf, black and blue, in a plaid pattern, loose around his neck. He came to a stop right in front of him and smiled. “Hi.”  
   
 Suga couldn’t help but smile back. “Hey.”  
   
 At the same time, they rushed to say “Sorry.”  
   
 Hinata blinked, and so did Suga. When the warm smile returned to Hinata’s lips, Suga swore all of his anxiousness melted away. They shared a quick laugh before pulling each other into a hug. Suga closed his eyes and took in the smell that was so… Hinata. Floral, spice, mix of vanilla… Suga held him a little closer before pulling away. He didn’t think before kissing Hinata’s cheek.  
   
 Hinata blinked but grinned. He opened his mouth but,  
   
 “Heyo,” Oikawa called out. They both turned to see him and Iwaizumi sitting on the patio. Soon enough, the four of them took their seats. Suga sat next to Iwaizumi, across from Hinata. They opened the menus and began looking. When the waitress came by, they ordered their drinks—coffee for three of them, pink lemonade for Oikawa (of course, had to be different)—and soon enough their sandwiches came.  
   
 “Hinata,” Suga said in a wary tone, “Are you playing footsies with me?”  
   
 Hinata just grinned and kept rubbing his feet against Suga’s.  
   
 When the bill came, Iwaizumi paid which Suga got mad at him for. Like good best friends, they bantered back and forth until Oikawa stole the spotlight with, “Well, since Iwa-chan’s paying for the meal, maybe you should take Hinata to the market I guess, buy him something nice?”  
   
 Suga eyed him. “You’re devious but you’re not subtle.”  
   
 “Don’t have to be, Sugar Sweetie.”  
   
 Hinata laughed and got up, tugging Suga’s arm. “Come on. Buy me something.”  
   
 “Okay, okay.”  
   
   
   
 “So there’s a market around here?”  
   
 “Yeah, it’s a local one. Open air, every weekend.”  
   
 Hinata hugged Suga’s arm, holding on to him as they entered the crowds. Merchants had tents set up, items on display. It kind of had an old-world style to it, making Hinata wiggle in excitement. “This is cool!”  
   
 “Yeah.” Suga glanced to Hinata, catching sight of that perfect smile. “What do you want?”  
   
 “Nah, you don’t have to buy me anything.” Hinata laughed. “Let’s just take a look around. There’s some neat stuff to look at.” They were in the artist section of the market, giving them plenty to view. He paused for a moment, forcing Suga to an abrupt halt as he stared at one tent. One artist had managed to make display items of large hoops of metal, linking in chains, forming abstract shapes. “Whoa.”  
   
 Suga looked at it, then his date. “Want one?”  
   
 Hinata made sure to keep his voice low, “Where the hell would I put it?”  
   
 Suga laughed. “Good question.”  
   
 “Kinda neat to look at, though.” He turned back to Suga and smiled.  
   
 Suga couldn’t help but smile as well, eyes dipping to that smile. Perfect smile. Hinata’s smile made his heart do flips. Fuck that smile, it was too good. Also, fuck that smile as in a blowjob because if Hinata got on his knees—Suga no. He looked away, abruptly, and straightened his back.  
   
 “What are you thinking about?”  
   
 Three octaves too high, Suga meeped out a sharp _“Nothing!”_  
   
 Hinata burst into a cackling fit.  
   
 Suga coughed, lowering his voice. “Sorry. Nothing.”  
   
 “I won’t pry,” teased Hinata.  
   
 As cute as the teasing was, it reminded Suga of the money. Soon enough they came to a clearing by the ocean view. The railing was high, but Hinata hopped up and sat on it, letting his feet dangle as he stared at Suga. Suga put his hands on Hinata’s hips, to steady him. Yeah, that was why. To steady him. Why else?  
   
 Suga looked up, Hinata was still smiling, and the guilt seemed to pool again in his stomach. “I’m sorry… about before.”  
   
 “Huh?” Hinata blinked. “Oh, no, it’s cool.”  
   
 “It’s not.”  
   
 “Oikawa explained it to me.”  
   
 “I still… want to apologise. Properly.” Suga swallowed hard. “Just, please, tell me… it’s not, drugs is it?”  
   
 “Huh?”  
   
 “I’m a doctor, I’ve seen some bad cases… and there was a time during my graduate studies, I volunteered at a help centre for addicts. I just… Just, please tell me.”  
   
 “Um.” Hinata smiled. “It’s not. Well, uh, not hard drugs anyway.”  
   
 Suga looked at him.  
   
 Hinata winced.  
   
 “Well.” Suga let out a sigh. “I don’t really… I don’t buy into the whole, you know, slippery slope argument that if you smoke pot once you’ll suddenly be injecting heroin. But, at the same time, I think a lot of people do, weed or whatever, and find it relatively harmless and they start thinking that cocaine and whatever can’t be that bad either…”  
   
 Hinata stared at him and ran a hand through his hair. “Well, it’s not often anyway. Usually just socially, with friends or something… I don’t buy my own anyway.”  
   
 “Well, when I was your age or whatever I did it too, but… Just, just promise me you won’t use my money on drugs, or anything like that. I don’t care what you’re using it for, as long as it’s not that. I’ve seen it. I don’t want to see anyone I know doing that, or… sorry, I should shut up.”  
   
 “It’s okay.” Hinata smiled. “I promise, okay?”  
   
 Suga sighed out of relief. “Thanks… that… Was that too much?”  
   
 “No, um… I think you’re probably the first person to really care and explain how you feel about it, so I don’t know. Thanks.” He ran a hand through Suga’s hair. “I accept your apology, but I’m sorry too.”  
   
 Suga blinked. “For what?”  
   
 “Honestly…” Hinata shrugged. “I don’t mind telling you what the money’s for, I just… when people get too forceful, or when they look like they’re getting forceful, I just kind of go _bwahhh_ instead of _gahh_ and lock up like a wall. I shouldn’t have told you to fuck off. That wasn’t cool. So, I’m sorry.”  
   
 Suga stared at him for a long while before a smile formed on his lips. “You’re so lucky you’re cute.”  
   
 “Huh? That’s not the only reason you’re forgiving me, right?”  
   
 Suga laughed, shaking his head. “No. It’s cool.”  
   
 “We’re cool?” Hinata grinned.  
   
 “We’re cool.” Suga nodded.  
   
 “Good!” Hinata grabbed Suga’s face. “Now, can I finally get something I want from you?”  
   
 “Oh?” Suga was pretty sure his cheeks were heating up at how nice Hinata’s hands were. “What’s that?”  
   
 Hinata leaned in.  
   
 Suga’s eyes widened.  
   
 Lips against lips.  
   
 Suga closed his eyes, heart leaping to his throat. He instinctually pulled Hinata closer. He was in awe. Hinata’s lips were soft, so soft. The kiss was gentle, slow, and it filled Suga with ease. When Hinata finally pulled away, he was grinning—and Suga swore it was the best grin he’d seen in his life.  
   
   
   
 The two of them kept walking around. Hinata hugging Suga’s arm, which Suga decided was absolutely amazing and perfectly okay and a hundred percent yes please more. Suga did notice, however, that Hinata’s eyes kept drifting upwards towards something. Suga looked up as well. “What is it?”  
   
 “Oh uh.” Hinata nudged his head to the tall building in front of them. “There’s this cool exhibit there I wanted to go see.”  
   
 Sugawara glanced to the banner above the art gallery. Exhibits of Kiyoko Shimizu on the third floor.  
   
 Hinata smiled. “Third floor is pretty high up, right?”  
   
 “Yep,” Suga said with some tease in his voice, “It’s the third one.”  
   
 “Shush!” Hinata bumped his hip against Suga.  
   
 Sugawara laughed. “Sorry, but yeah. The third floor is the only floor that has exhibits dedicated to a single artist. They change it up every couple of weeks, though. It’s extremely impressive to get it.”  
   
 “Huh, thought so.” Hinata smiled. “Good for her.”  
   
 Suga blinked. “You know her?”  
   
 “Mm, yeah. A little.” Hinata nodded. “We went to school together, but she was a lot older than me. One of my friends had the biggest crush on her… but, okay, all of my friends had the biggest crush on her. Even Yamaguchi, and he’s so gay he was having a midlife crisis at thirteen. Again. But, yeah, I remember when I just got to high school, I was just like… totally taken away by her work.”  
   
 Suga glanced to the banner again. “Do you want to go in?”  
   
 Hinata’s lips wibbled and he vibrated. “I want to, but… I have somewhere to be.”  
   
 “How about next week?”  
   
 “Huh?”  
   
 Suga pointed. “Exhibit’s open for another two weeks, so how about next Saturday. You and me?”  
   
 Hinata’s eyes lit up and he grinned wide. He practically hopped up and down as he grabbed Suga’s sleeves. “Really? You’d take me in?”  
   
 “Yep.” Suga leaned in and kissed his cheek again. “First oysters, now art. You’re really not what I expected, you know?—Not that I mind, of course.”  
   
 Hinata chuckled. “And what did you expect?”  
   
 “Hmm. Probably a lot of video games and junk food, to be honest.”  
   
 “I get plenty of those two too! I just so happen to be very balanced.”  
   
 Suga grinned. “I’m glad.” He ruffled Hinata’s hair. “Makes you interesting.”  
   
 Hinata hopped up and stole a quick kiss. His smile wibbled before failing. “We should head back though…”  
   
 “Okay.” Suga looked around. “You sure you don’t want anything?”  
   
 “Nah.”  
   
 “If you see anything, just let me know.” Suga tilted his head. “Although this area is mostly produce.”  
   
 “What do they produce?”  
   
 Suga paused. “I mean like… fruits, and veggies.”  
   
 “Oh! Just kidding!”  
   
 “You knew that?”  
   
 “Yes! Not at all!”  
   
 Suga blinked. “Which is it?”  
   
 “Ack!”  
   
 Suga ruffled his hair again.  
   
 “Okay.” Hinata looked around. “This is going to sound so weird but can we get a tomato?”  
   
 “A tomato? Sure.”  
   
 “Awesome!” Hinata practically yelled as he bounced up. He looked down and in a quieter voice he whispered, “Would love to bring her one.”  
   
 “Bring her?”  
   
 “Oh.” Hinata looked up again. “I’m going to see my grandma after this. She’s in one of those good elder care homes, but… it’s a distance away from here, and from home, so I can’t go very often. That’s… what I’m putting some of your money towards. My parents don’t care about anyone but themselves, so… I gotta care for her.” Hinata looked away. “She took care of me all these years so, it’s only fair.”  
   
   
   
 “Oh, you’re back!” Oikawa had climbed up on Iwaizumi for a piggyback ride (and by the scowl on Iwaizumi’s face Suga figured it was not by his choice). “Did Suga get you anything?”  
   
 “Yeah!” Hinata threw his hands forward. “Look at the size of this tomato!”  
   
 Oikawa stared, jaw dropping, eyes widening. “Suga!”  
   
 “It’s organic,” Hinata went on, “And hormone-free and all that healthy good stuff!”  
   
 “Suga,” Oikawa practically whined. “Your game is so weak… it’s so fucking weak I could cry. Holy shit.” He shoved his face in the back of Iwaizumi’s neck. “No wonder you don’t even have a cat—it would take one look at your game and just say fuck it I’m out. Holy shit. Holy fucking shit, Suga.”  
   
 Suga laughed and shook his head. “It’s what he wanted.”  
   
 “Suga…” Iwaizumi sighed. “I’ve bought my sugar babies diamond rings, gold watches, given them vacations overseas. You got a fucking tomato.”  
   
 Hinata snorted but just looked at his tomato. “It’s so perfect though.”  
   
 “Well.” Iwaizumi sighed. “Good thing you got a low maintenance sugar baby. He seems happy.”  
   
 “I guess.” Oikawa shook his head. “You seriously have to work on your game though.”  
   
 “Nah, shut up.” Hinata shook his head before kissing Suga’s cheek. “He’s perfect!”  
   
 Sugawara’s cheeks flushed red and he looked away, nervous chuckle leaving his lips.  
   
   
   
 When they parted ways, there was the quick exchange of cash.  
   
   
   
  _[Koushi Sugawara: Did your grandmother like the tomato?]_  
   
  _[Shouyou Hinata: YESSSSS she said it was the best she had in years tbh]_  
   
  _[Koushi Sugawara: Haha, yeah the produce is really good from that market.]_  
   
  _[Shouyou Hinata: mhm~!!]_  
   
  _[Koushi Sugawara: So, were you still interested in going to the art gallery with me?]_  
   
  _[Shouyou Hinata: yESS]_  
   
  _[Shouyou Hinata: also i totally forgot to give you your scarf]_  
   
  _[Koushi Sugawara: That’s okay, next time. Keep it until then.]_  
   
  _[Shouyou Hinata: i'm kinda wearing it everyday tbh]_  
   
 Suga had to google what ‘tbh’ was at that point, to be honest. Go figure.  
   
  _[Koushi Sugawara: You’re adorable. I can’t wait to see you again.]_  
   
 He half wondered if that was too much, too clingy but—  
   
  _[Shouyou Hinata: me too ;.; <3]_  
   
   
   
 As promised, they met up in front of the art gallery, a week later. Well, ‘met up’ wouldn’t be the way Suga would describe it. Meeting usually means a very calm walking to one another—not Hinata performing a flying hug-tackle, Suga barely catching him time as they spun from the force. Hinata burst into a laugh, spilling apologies in his giggle fit as he stole about three or four kisses from Suga until they decided it was cold out and they better go in.  
   
 When they got to the entrance, Suga glanced up to the board. “They have season passes. Want one?”  
   
 Hinata’s eyes widened and he wiggled happily forever.  
   
 Suga laughed and bought two season passes. In total it was around a hundred and forty dollars or something like that, but it was worth it. They got cards printed and Hinata carefully put it in his wallet, running his thumb over it and smiling from ear to ear. Hinata put his wallet away and practically tackled Suga (again).  
   
 “So, do you want to look at the first two floors first, or go straight to the third? We can always come back.”  
   
 “Third!”  
   
 They walked to the escalator. Hinata leaned on the railing. “Whatcha thinking about?”  
   
 “I don’t know,” Suga muttered. “I was wondering when was the last time I ever made my date happy.”  
   
 Hinata blinked. “Huh? You would totally make everyone happy!”  
   
 “Not really,” admitted Suga. Seeing the confused look on Hinata’s face, he smiled. “A lot of them were usually mad at me, or disappointed. A lot were disappointed.”  
   
 “Why?”  
   
 Suga switched escalators with Hinata and hummed. “I couldn’t ever be, enough for them I guess. Not enough time, not enough… anything.”  
   
 “Because of work?” Hinata asked in a soft voice, “Long hours because you’re a doctor?”  
   
 “Well yeah, but not just then. Before too. When I was in Med school. Even before, way back in undergrad. The last time I made a boyfriend happy was probably high school, actually. Way back then.” Suga smiled. “He was in the arts, actually. I was in a lot of advanced science classes, so I had labs before and after school every day. He had to work on his art projects, so compared to other high schools neither of us had a lot of time.”  
   
 “Well.” Hinata huffed. “It sounds like you just haven’t found anyone who’s understanding.”  
   
 Suga blinked. “Huh?”  
   
 Hinata stepped off the escalator and scratched the back of his head. “Honestly… I want to see more of you, and not just for the money. And I know, I can tell that you honestly want to see more of me. But life’s a bit more complex than that.”  
   
 Suga’s eyes softened. “Yeah.”  
   
 Hinata smiled, taking Suga’s hand, intertwining their fingers. “Come on. Let’s look around.”  
   
   
   
 Kiyoko’s art style was… dark, actually. While it had obvious elements of gothic and horror themes, Suga noted it relied more on portraying things as metaphysical and nightmarish. It was, weird. Disturbing, even, but Suga still felt like it was art. He didn’t really know how to put it into words, but he blurted out “I like it.”  
   
 “Me too.” Hinata smiled. “She’s gotten a lot better… a lot weirder too, but it’s awesome.”  
   
 “It’s like… disturbing.” Suga cocked his head as they stared at an image of a priest with shoulders twice as large as they should have been, thousands of crosses at his feet. “But without going over the top?”  
   
 “Yeah.” Hinata nodded twice. “It’s kinda being weird for the sake of being what it is, instead of just obviously going overboard for _bwhaahhh_ shock factor, you know?”  
   
 “My words, exactly.” Suga grinned.  
   
 They moved on to the next painting.  
   
 Hinata grinned, pointing at it. “I really like the green-blue sky here… I could actually see this one in someone’s house, you know? Not just for scary art museum.”  
   
 Suga smiled. “Yeah.”  
   
 “I like it because, it’s dark but… it’s not like, it doesn’t remind me of teenager angst dark, you know?” Hinata put his hands behind his back. “Maybe I’m just saying that ‘cause I saw a lot of her art when she was a teenager, but it looks really… matured, well thought-out?”  
   
 “It’s carefully done,” Suga added.  
   
 The two of them eventually found the information panel at the centre of the exhibit where it talked about Kiyoko Shimizu’s life. She went to Karasuno High, where she discovered her natural talent and abilities with paint, then went on to do an undergrad and masters at…  
   
 Suga blinked. “Karasuno?”  
   
 Hinata frowned. “That’s such a lie.”  
   
 Suga glanced at him. “What?”  
   
 “She didn’t discover her ‘natural talent’,” Hinata said and punctuated with a long huff. “She got placed in an art class by accident and didn’t want to lose her perfect GPA so she poured hours into art so she would at least get a ‘B’. GPA was all she had back then, no friends, no real family—nothing. That’s what she told me. Art gave her a peace of mind for the first time.”  
   
 Suga whistled. “Sounds heavy.”  
   
 “S-Sorry!” Hinata meeped.  
   
 “No, it’s okay.” Suga looked to the panel. “I like hearing people work for their skill. I think everyone envies people who just naturally have it all.”  
   
 “Me too.”  
   
 Suga looked at him. “Karasuno High?”  
   
 “Yeah.” Hinata nodded. “It’s on the East Side.”  
   
 “Yeah, I know. I went there.”  
   
 Hinata blinked. “Really? You too?”  
   
 “Mhm.” Suga scratched his head. “That was like twenty years ago, though.”  
   
 “Maybe I’ll see your face on the grad pictures!”  
   
 Suga paused, looking at him.  
   
 Hinata froze, realising his mistake.  
   
 Suga’s jaw twitched. “Please don’t tell me…” He saw Hinata winced and Suga’s eyes widened. “You’re still in high school?”  
   
 “Shit.” Hinata squished both his eyes shut, as if that would make his problems disappear. “Yeah… I’m in my last year though!”  
   
 “I thought you were at least twenty.” Suga took a step back. “How old are you?”  
   
 “Uh… seventeen?”  
   
 “Seventeen? I can’t—”  
   
 “Wait!” Hinata put both his hands forward. “Would it help if I said age of consent is sixteen? It’s legal. We’re legal.”  
   
 “Well, that helps but…”  
   
 “Would it help if I said I turn eighteen in a couple weeks?”  
   
 Suga paused. “Actually, yes.”  
   
 Hinata took a deep breath. “What’s the lowest you’ll go?”  
   
 “Eighteen.” Suga bit his lip. “I won’t make a move on anyone who isn’t a legal adult, no matter what age of consent is.”  
   
 “It’s only a couple weeks,” Hinata assured. “I can still get a kiss or two until then right?”  
   
 “Maybe… when’s your birthday?”  
   
 Hinata pulled out his wallet and took his learner’s driver’s license. “See!” He pointed at the birthday. “Two weeks. I’m not lying.”  
   
 Suga let out a sigh of relief. “Sorry… I overreacted. I guess.”  
   
 “Nah… to be honest, I kind of avoid telling people about that.” Hinata shut one eye. “Most will probably say no, but!” He opened both eyes and smiled. “Soon I’ll be eighteen! And we won’t have to deal with that.”  
   
 Suga… didn’t look as convinced. “I’m turning thirty-eight this year,” he pointed out, “I am twenty years older than you. Isn’t that… creepy?”  
   
 “Uh… that’s _hot_ are you kidding me?”  
   
 Suga paled. “I don’t know if I can do this…”  
   
 Hinata put his hands behind his back, curling his fingers together. “Sorry, was it weird, to say older guys are hot?”  
   
 “Maybe, but not…”  
   
 “Let me guess… not you? Are you an idiot?”  
   
 Suga stared at him.  
   
 “You are so dumb.” Hinata grabbed his shoulders and tugged him down, kissing him roughly for only half a second.  
   
 “Still.” Suga knew his cheeks were red. “Seventeen… geez. How did you get in the club?”  
   
 “I have my ways…”  
   
 Suga frowned, but turned away, running a hand through his grey hair. “Seventeen.”  
   
 “Eighteen.”  
   
 “Eighteen.” Suga looked at him. “So… anyway.” He needed a change of topic. Fast. “Are you going to a college or university next year?”  
   
 Hinata walked to the next painting. “Mhm, I’ve applied, already accepted. Well, conditional acceptance, as long as my average doesn’t drop below fifty percent. Which pretty much means I’m in the clear.”  
   
 Eighteen, university, adult, Suga said to himself mentally. “Nice. What program are you going into?”  
   
 “I’m going to do a double major, in psychology and social work.”  
   
 Suga stared, eyes widening.  
   
 Hinata blinked. “What?”  
   
 “Nothing, just, wow. Double major, that’s going to be tough.” Suga glanced to the next painting, feeling the all-too-familiar aches in his neck and shoulder. “Psych and social work, huh? I’m curious why.” He smiled. “You don’t have to tell me, but it’s like oysters and art. You’re really full of surprises.”  
   
 Hinata grinned. “Well, I… I guess the easy way is just to say I don’t have a very good family life. They’re not supporting me, so I’m getting my money from, well, this.” His smile became lopsided. “Before my mom quit her old job, she got some benefits like counseling. I had to go there… a lot. I had a lot of trouble growing up. I’ve probably seen twelve therapists—and that’s not even including one-timers.”  
   
 Suga’s eyes softened.  
   
 “I’m good now! But, basically… I was always this kinda… problem child, growing up.” Hinata scratched his nose, looking away, eyes becoming unfocused. “I ended up in a foster home at one point, when child services got involved, but my parents cleaned up their act quick enough and managed to get me back. I wish they didn’t.” Hinata’s smile was gone. “Things have been tough… but I think I made it this far because so many people have helped me along the way.”  
   
 “So.” Suga looked him in the eye. “That’s why you’re so intent on helping people?”  
   
 “Yeah!” Hinata perked up. “To give back to the system that got me through it, and maybe even improve it.”  
   
 Suga couldn’t help but smile. “That’s very noble of you, and if I can go as far to say it I think it’s also very fitting.”  
   
 Hinata grinned and held up a determined fist. “Yeah! It’s going to be hard work, but I want to do it.”  
   
 Suga whistled. “Yeah. It’s probably at least five years away, but do you know what you’ll want to specialise in?”  
   
 “I don’t know if I’ll still be interested in it, but right now I want to work with kids.” Hinata smiled. “Which means… yeah. A lot of work.”  
   
 “Well…” Suga looked at the painting of red skies. “I don’t want to sound rude or anything, but I think… I think a lot of people like the idea of psychology, rather than actually liking psychology. It’s different from what people assume. Most people like it, but some people find it’s not for them.”  
   
 “Yeah.” Hinata glanced to the painting too. “It is. Last year, I took an advanced course in psych, got me uni credits, and that summer I managed to get into two courses at a local college to get ahead, and like familiarise myself with it, stuff like that.”  
   
 “Shit,” Suga mumbled. “I’m impressed. You really want to do this, huh?”  
   
 Hinata nodded. “But, tuition’s gonna be costly.” He sighed. “Housing, so on and so forth. I’ll need money for that. I have all my expenses calculated, though. Well, okay, given Tsuki kinda did it for me, but I’m trying to prepare myself for it as best I can.”  
   
 Suga couldn’t help but smile. “You’ve got a good head on your shoulders.”  
   
   
   
 Despite the undertone of unease, the two of them focused on the art, seeing all five floors of the art gallery, and the rest of the date went by in a blur of laughs and smiles.  
   
 “Can I drive you home?” asked Suga at the end. “It’s alright if you don’t want me to.”  
   
 “Uh.” Hinata considered it, but sighed. “I’d rather not.”  
   
 “That’s okay.” Suga smiled. “Are you going to the central bus terminal? That’s a good five blocks from here. Can I at least drive you there?”  
   
 Hinata smiled. “Sure!”  
   
   
   
 The drive was in comfortable silence. When they parked, Hinata leaned in for a kiss and Suga felt an instinctual urge to pull back—but he didn’t. The kiss was sweet, though it tasted a touch forced. After another exchange of money, Suga watched Hinata leave before he drove home. The aches returned and his stomach twisted into a knot.  
   
 He was no longer comfortable.


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is my first multichap fic for the fandom by the way; and, given it's a rarepair, I didn't expect anyone to really get into it. I just wanted to say thank you all for the comments and the nice support. Q.Q
> 
> As a thank you, please enjoy this chapter!
> 
> * * *

 

 Suga was lounging on his couch. It was seven in the morning, he had just finished a twelve-hour night shift, and he decided staring at the ceiling was the best way to spend his time. He was hoping he would just pass out on the couch but his body said no to that. He let out a long, drawn-out sigh before rubbing his face with both hands.  
   
 Seventeen.  
   
 Fuck.  
   
 Suga had a nice place, a luxurious eight hundred square feet (which was a lot for a condominium) and the apartment was actually in the residential area of one of the fanciest hotels in the city. It gave free access to the pool, the lounge areas, the gym, so on and so forth. Suga was lucky to get the corner unit, which had windows for majority of the walls, giving it a nice ‘open’ feeling. He had a great view of the city below, and the ocean which he could see between tall buildings.  
   
  _Seventeen._  
  
_Fuck._  
   
 It was a cloudy day, rain pelting on the windows with force. The sky was a murky grey, which most people would have been bummed by—but Suga wirelessly connected his phone to his sound system, playing a fitting soft jazz he would sometimes fall asleep to. It was nice. He made the most of it. It was nice.  
   
 His shoulders hurt; his neck hurt.  
   
 Suga sighed and thought back to when he was seventeen… sure, he probably would have said something like _“I’m not a kid,”_ and he probably would have been right too. He had done a lot by the time he was seventeen. He got his first boyfriend when he was fifteen, Suga’s lips tugging into a smile as he thought of all the nights he snuck out to meet Daichi at the park behind his house, lips locked, hands roaming over one another.  
   
 The memories were… warm.  
   
 But that’s when he was seventeen; now, he was thirty-seven.  
   
 “Holy shit.” Suga sighed again. “I’m twenty years older than him, twice his age and more!”  
   
 But he was going to be eighteen soon. He was going to be a legal adult. An internationally recognised legal adult. From a neurological perspective, Hinata’s forebrain was probably mostly developed with the exception of the prefrontal cortex.  
   
 “I don’t know,” he muttered to himself, “I don’t know. This is weird.”  
   
 Not knowing what else to do, he grabbed his phone and began texting.  
   
  _[Koushi Sugawara: Hey, Oikawa’s 21 right?]_  
   
  _[Hajime Iwaizumi: Yeah]_  
   
  _[Koushi Sugawara: Do you ever think the age difference is a lot?]_  
   
  _[Hajime Iwaizumi: Well yeah but he’s an adult he can make his own choices]_  
   
  _[Koushi Sugawara: What if he wasn’t?]_  
   
  _[Hajime Iwaizumi: He is]_  
   
  _[Koushi Sugawara: I mean… what if you were dating someone who *wasn’t* a legal adult?]_  
   
  _[Hajime Iwaizumi: Okay first of all break connections don’t you dare go to jail for a sugar baby]_  
   
  _[Koushi Sugawara: He’s legal. Seventeen. Age of consent is sixteen right? And he’s turning eighteen soon enough.]_  
   
  _[Hajime Iwaizumi: Shit fuck don’t scare me like that]_  
   
  _[Hajime Iwaizumi: Thank god okay what’s the problem?]_  
   
  _[Koushi Sugawara: It’s weird, isn’t it? Dating someone who is only eighteen?]_  
   
  _[Hajime Iwaizumi: Well yeah… But that’s the whole perks of dating someone younger -- the fact they’re younger]_  
   
  _[Koushi Sugawara: But… isn’t it, too young?]_  
   
  _[Hajime Iwaizumi: Want me to come over?]_  
   
 Yes, is what Suga wanted to say.  
   
  _[Koushi Sugawara: No, I’m fine.]_  
   
  _[Hajime Iwaizumi: Too bad phone’s at like 2% battery I’m coming over]_  
   
 Suga sighed out of relief and tried to make his breathing calm. Soon enough the door opened and he heard Iwaizumi call out for him. “Over here,” he muttered just loud enough.  
   
 “Yo.” Iwaizumi offered a wave before taking a seat on the couch opposite of him.  
   
 “Want something? Coffee?”  
   
 “Nah, I’m fine.” Iwaizumi stared at him for a long moment. “So when’s his birthday?”  
   
 Suga looked at his phone, switching to his calendar app. “Eleven days. I should get him a present, shouldn’t I?”  
   
 “Probably.” Iwaizumi leaned forward. “What’s wrong with eighteen?”  
   
 “I just…” Suga kept staring at the ceiling. “I feel weird! Like, I’m some cradle robber. It’s a twenty year age gap. Twenty. Twenty! I just… I mean, when I was twenty-one, he was just one year’s old.”  
   
 “Yes, but… you’re not twenty-one. He’s not one. Maybe this is just my personal opinion here, but it doesn’t matter _what_ the age gap is… but _when_ the age gap is. If he’s a legal, consenting adult then that’s his business, that’s his choice.”  
   
 Suga sat up, glaring. “But…”  
   
 “Shut up. You’re annoying. Almost as annoying as Oikawa—and that says something.” Iwaizumi rubbed his neck and sighed. “You know… I think most sugar babies are probably smarter than the average person… Not all of them. Some are dumb as shit. But the good ones know what they’re doing. They’re taking their finances in their own hands, their lives into their own hands. They’re usually more grown up. Maturity and age aren’t the same thing, you know that Suga.”  
   
 Suga tried to argue but all that came out was a sigh and a defeated, “Yeah.”  
   
 “Look, if being with Hinata really makes you feel like you’re fucking a kid, then ditch him. But if not, he’s an adult. Repeat after me: ‘Adult’.”  
   
 Suga smiled. “Eleven days.”  
   
 “Shut up.”  
   
 “Adult,” Suga said clearly.  
   
 “Good.” Iwaizumi shrugged. “Don’t be afraid to ask his opinions on things either. Politics, religion, the kinds of things that could weed out an idiot from a critical thinker, or whatever.”  
   
 “Um.” Suga frowned. “Aren’t those the kind of questions you avoid when you’re dating someone?”  
   
 “If he was your boyfriend, yeah. But he’s your boytoy.”  
   
 Suga looked down at his lap. He thought back. He thought back to how Hinata described Kiyoko’s paintings, art in general, the time they negotiated the price, Hinata’s mood on being driven home, and even the shitty business card. “He’s accepted to a uni, going to do a double major.”  
   
 “Shit… nice.”  
   
 “Mhm.” Suga looked up. “He’s got his life together, and, maybe, maybe better than I do.”  
   
 “Better than Oikawa. Does it still feel weird?”  
   
 “I don’t know,” Suga admitted.  
   
 “You don’t know?”  
   
 “I think a part of it might have been the whole… sugar aspect.” He swallowed hard. “I’m still adjusting. I don’t know. I still want to see him.”  
   
  “Well, think of a gift.” Iwaizumi got up. “His birthday is coming up, right? Eleven days? So that’s… Thursday? Friday?”  
   
 “Wednesday.”  
   
 “Good. Also, you gotta work on your game.” Iwaizumi pointed at him. “A fucking tomato, really?”  
   
 Suga just smiled.  
   
 “Have you seen him since then?”  
   
 “We went to the art gallery.”  
   
 “Art gallery?”  
   
 “He knew the artist having a big exhibit.” Suga thought back to it. “He was really cool and…” His eyes widened. “I got an idea.”  
   
   
   
  _[Koushi Sugawara: Hey, it’s me. I was wondering if you’d be free the Saturday after your birthday?]_  
   
  _[Shouyou Hinata: aghhhh nooooo thats when my friends are throwing my party]_  
   
  _[Shouyou Hinata: we were gonna do it on wednesday but then Kageyama and Tsuki have an exam on Thursday so they need to study that night]_  
   
  _[Shouyou Hinata: well Kageyama needs to study hes so fucked omfg but Tsuki could totally celebrate with me if he wasnt a useless bisexual]_  
   
  _[Koushi Sugawara: Would you be free the Wednesday, then? I think I can get the night off.]_  
   
  _[Shouyou Hinata: YEAH i got a free period first class on thursday too so i don’t have to be at school until 10am on thursday i don’t mind staying out late]_  
   
  _[Koushi Sugawara: So, can I take you out for your birthday?]_  
   
  _[Shouyou Hinata: yESSS where we gonna go????]_  
   
  _[Koushi Sugawara: It’s a surprise!]_  
   
  _[Shouyou Hinata: asadjaojaif haeif awdhaiufhow faidaho dwagf ead adaow foaif]_  
   
  _[Shouyou Hinata: SURPRISES SCARE ME BUT IM EXCITED TOO OKAY LETS DO THIS]_  
   
  _[Koushi Sugawara: You’re adorable. I can pick you up at the central bus terminal at 7? We’ll have dinner around 9:30.]_  
   
  _[Shouyou Hinata: okay cool bUT WHAT ARE WE DOING IN BETWEEN???]_  
   
  _[Koushi Sugawara: That’s the surprise! It’ll be in a public place, don’t worry.]_  
   
  _[Shouyou Hinata: oh were past the public place stage]_  
   
  _[Koushi Sugawara: Oh? Then, maybe we could come to my place for dinner? I could cook you something. (Do you have allergies?)]_  
   
  _[Shouyou Hinata: no but oH MY GOD YOU CAN COOK TOO??]_  
   
  _[Koushi Sugawara: Yep~]_  
   
  _[Shouyou Hinata: can we get married??]_  
   
  _[Koushi Sugawara: Don’t you want to *taste* my cooking first?]_  
   
  _[Shouyou Hinata: LOL]_  
   
  _[Shouyou Hinata: Oh shit you just got me in trouble]_  
   
  _[Koushi Sugawara: ???]_  
   
  _[Shouyou Hinata: I just laiughed so hard i scared Yamaguchguch and he fell down the stairs oh my fucking god lmao shit i gotta help or Tsuki’s gonna beat my ass brb]_  
   
  _[Koushi Sugawara: What’s a Yamaguchguch?]_  
   
  _[Koushi Sugawara: Is that a person?]_  
   
  _[Koushi Sugawara: Is he okay??]_  
   
  _[Shouyou Hinata: yeah my autocorrect changes yamaguchi into Yamaguchguch because I type it so often hes good now sorry ANYWAY im really looking forward to our date!!!]_  
   
  _[Koushi Sugawara: Me too! <3]_  
   
   
   
 Suga sat in his car, waiting, in the temporary parking space near the central bus terminal. When the door opened, he glanced over and saw Hinata get in. The door closed and Hinata turned to him, dressed up in a suit—and looking as equally amazing as their first date—he wore a different tie, a red one, but this time Suga noticed the little orange pocket square on his jacket. Unable to help himself, he leaned over and stole a quick kiss.  
   
 Hinata grinned. “Hello to you too.”  
   
 “Sorry! Hi.” Suga smiled. “You look amazing.”  
   
 “Well, it’s the same suit,” Hinata admitted, “I’ve got two, but this is my nicer one.”  
   
 Suga looked him over. “Is everything orange about you?”  
   
 “Well, I just colour coordinate, you know? And before you ask, yes, orange is my natural hair colour.”  
   
 “I know,” Suga said with a smile.  
   
 “You… do?”  
   
 “Well, your eyebrows are orange, so I assumed it was orange.”  
   
 Hinata gave a playful smile. “You assumed ‘it’ was orange?”  
   
 “I meant your natural hair colour!” Suga practically yelled. “Not, you know…”  
   
 “Do the carpets match the drapes?”  
   
 “Hinata.”  
   
 “Don’t worry.” Hinata laughed. “No carpets here…”  
   
 “Hinata!”  
   
 “All shaved!” Hinata yelled, watching Suga’s cheeks burn red. He heard some mumbles of something or the other but none of it made sense. “I’m sorry!” He leaned over and kissed Suga’s neck. “You’re just so fricken cute when you’re flustered, Suga! It’s nice.”  
   
 “Yeah, yeah.” He looked back at Hinata, eyes dipping down to… His eyes shot back up.  
   
 Hinata burst out laughing.  
   
 “Shush!”  
   
 “You totally looked!”  
   
 “I didn’t!”  
   
 “You did! Your eyes were like _geh_ but then they just went _BUWAHHH_!!”  
   
 “My eyes did not go _buwahhh_!”  
   
 “You’re right!” Hinata said through his laughter, “They totally went _WHOOOSHED_!”  
   
 Suga gasped. “Is there even a difference?”  
   
 “Of course there is!”  
   
 “Fine, fine.” Suga took a deep breath, big smile on his lips. “Whatever you say birthday boy.” He held out an envelope. “Here, I got you something.”  
   
 Hinata blinked before taking it. He held it up to the window where the streetlight let him see through the envelope, barely making out a shape of what was inside. “It’s not money, that’s a first.”  
   
 “Sorry.”  
   
 “No!” Hinata smiled. “It’s a good thing. You actually put thought into it.” He opened it up and pulled out. “Tickets!” He looked at the two tickets. “To a show?”  
   
 “Yeah.” Suga smiled. “I noticed you liked art, so I was wondering if you’ve ever seen an opera before?”  
   
 Hinata began vibrating, big smile on his lips.  
   
 “A lot of people make fun of operas, but have never actually seen one.” Suga smiled. “I figure you’d appreciate it.”  
   
 “Oh my God!” Hinata wiggled in his seat. “That’s so cool! I’ve never been! Holy shit! When is it?” He read the date then gasped. “Today! Now! That’s the surprise! That’s where we’re going!”  
   
 Suga grinned wide. “Yep.”  
   
 “Suga!” Hinata tackled him, planting a million and one kisses all over his face—until his elbow smashed the horn and the car honked loud, startling them both. “Oops!”  
   
 Suga felt the warmth in his chest swirl and bloom.  
   
   
   
 Performance. That was the only way to describe it. Hinata was on the edge of his chair, leaning on the railing of their balcony seats. It really was a performance. “The expressions on their faces! The music! The orchestra! The singing! The whole theatre was alive holy shit!” said Hinata during the intermission. He was practically bouncing around like a volleyball made of sunshine.  
   
 “Here.” Suga offered a glass of sparkling white wine. “Drinking age is nineteen… but I figure one drink won’t kill you.”  
   
 “Champagne?” Hinata blinked.  
   
 “it’s part of the opera experience,” Suga explained. He took a sip and watched Hinata do the same. “How is it?”  
   
 “Nice! Fizzy, but not like trashy beer. Nice stuff.”  
   
 “Hm, is it _gwah_ or _bwah_?”  
   
 “Are you making fun of me?”  
   
 Suga snorted. “Sorry.”  
   
 “It’s totally _bwah_ , by the way.” Hinata grinned. “I’m surprised at how… sexy it is. The opera, I mean. All of it. I mean it’s like elegant, but the way the girls move… man, I think the old lady in the balcony next to us got a boner too. Wasn’t this one written like, two hundred years ago too?”  
   
 “Yep.” Suga grinned. “Back then it was obviously a more… conservative time. The purists _hated_ it. That’s why it got so popular, though. It was actually part of the movement that made opera for the people, not the rich.”  
   
 “Whoa, really?” Hinata grinned. “That’s so cool! I had no idea opera was cool. I like the main guy the uh, terror?”  
   
 “Tenor,” Suga corrected. “It’s hard to find a nice tenor. He’s really good.”  
   
 Hinata opened his mouth to reply, but the announcements to return to their seats went on.  
   
   
   
 The second half was twice as good as the first.  
   
   
   
  “Just, the acting! The orchestra! The ranges on their voices!” Hinata flailed as much as he could while still hugging Suga’s arm. “The harmony, oh my God.”  
   
 “Yeah,” Suga said in a laugh as they stepped into his condo. “It was pretty _bwuhhhh_ ,” which was the sound Hinata had made about fourteen times in the car.  
   
 “Suga I’m going to hit you holy shit.”  
   
 Sugawara burst into a laughing fit before pulling Hinata a bit closer. “I’m sorry, forgive me?”  
   
 Hinata went on his tippy toes before pressing their lips together. “You’re so lucky you’re cute, you know that?”  
   
 “Mhm.” Suga ruffled his hair then stole another kiss.  
   
 Hinata pulled away before looking around. “Wow, nice place by the way.”  
   
 “If anyone knocks, don’t answer; if they sound like Oikawa—definitely don’t answer.”  
   
 Hinata snorted and turned to face him. “He lives around here, huh?”  
   
 “Iwaizumi does.” Suga grabbed a wide, deeper pan. “He lives across the hall from me. Make yourself at home. Dinner won’t take too long. Want anything to drink?”  
   
 Hinata hopped up on the bar stool and leaned his elbows on the island counter. “Water?”  
   
 Suga quickly got him a glass. “Here.”  
   
 “Thank you!”  
   
 “I’m making a rice stir-fry. I already cut everything up beforehand, so it’ll be quick.”  
   
 “Oooo.” Hinata sipped his drink. “So resourceful.”  
   
 Suga grabbed the sesame oil before pausing. “Resourceful.”  
   
 “Like… No! What’s the word?”  
   
 “Efficient?”  
   
 “Sure?”  
   
 Sugawara laughed and poured the oil in the pan, twisting the knob which ignited the burner underneath. The hum of the blue flame was soon overtaken by sizzling oil. He grabbed a couple tupperwares from the fridge and opened the one of raw chicken breast. It was cut into smaller pieces and he tossed it in, using a wooden spatula to break the pieces apart. He glanced over his shoulder. “Can I take your jacket?”  
   
 “Sure.” Hinata peeled the black blazer off his shoulders and soon enough Suga took it from him. It left him in a white buttoned up shirt. He rolled up his sleeves and loosened his tie, but didn’t take it off.  
   
 Suga hung both Hinata’s and his own jackets before returning to the kitchen. He noticed Hinata’s rolled up sleeves and rolled his up as well; however, only about halfway up his forearm unlike Hinata who went until the elbow.  
   
 Hinata eyed Sugawara, noting the shape of his shoulders and arms and back and mmmm.  
   
 After stirring the meat a bit more it was browned. He added the chopped onions, shallots, garlic, and ginger all in one go. He let it brown for a bit before adding a mix of soy sauce and water—when it hit the oil it sizzled loud.  
   
 “Ooo!” Hinata clapped his hands excitedly.  
   
 Suga laughed. “Want to help?”  
   
 “Sure!”  
   
 Suga grabbed a bowl and then two eggs from the fridge. He handed him a fork. “Just beat these two eggs, okay?”  
   
 “Sure thing!” Hinata began mixing at super speeds.  
   
 Suga then added the yellow peppers, the snow peas, green peas, and carrots. He mixed it with the rest, leaving it alone for a while to cook. He looked over his shoulder.  
   
 Hinata was seriously focused on the eggs. He had his tongue sticking out the side of his mouth as he vigorously broke the record of the fastest egg beater.  
   
 “Very cute,” Suga teased. “Something about you in a fancy dress shirt with your tongue out is fitting.”  
   
 “Huh?” Hinata snapped his mouth shut. “Damn, I used to stick my tongue out all the time when I was a kid.”  
   
 “When you were a kid?”  
   
 “Hey!” Hinata yelled, “I’m an adult now!”  
   
 “Uhuh, eighteen. Adult.” Suga smiled. He ruffled Hinata’s hair then grabbed the bowl of eggs. “Thank you.” He moved the veggies to the side then poured the egg in. Quickly, he scrambled it, giving the stir-fry little bits of egg spread out. He then grabbed the rice he made this morning. It was usually best to use day-old rice for stir-fries, but it was good enough. When he mixed it in, he smiled. “Almost done.”  
   
 “Wow.” Hinata grinned. “So… how’s work?”  
   
 Suga just sighed.  
   
 “That bad, huh?”  
   
 Suga laughed instead of answering. “How’s school?  
   
 Hinata just sighed.  
   
 Suga smiled. “I thought you got accepted and all?”  
   
 “Well, yeah, but I’m trying to meet the requirements of this big artsy grant for uni. I gotta make this big portfolio of twenty things, ugh.”  
   
 Suga winced as he separated the fried rice between two plates. “Twenty, huh? Geez.”  
   
 “Yeah… I only have eighteen. Ugh, ugh, ugh.”  
   
 “Only two more, right?”  
   
 “Well, I want to redo two of them, so it’s like two minimum but four more to go.”  
   
 Sugawara couldn’t help yelling out, “ _Ughwaaahh!!_ ”  
   
 “SUGA!”  
   
 Snorting, Suga turned around and put the two plates on the counter. “I’m sorry.”  
   
 “You’re so mean to me—on my birthday, too!”  
   
 “I’m sorry.” Suga leaned across the island counter to kiss the corner of his cheeks. “Do you want to eat here or at the table?”  
   
 “Here’s fine. If you stand while you eat.”  
   
 “You’re going to make me stand?”  
   
 “Your punishment, asshole.”  
   
 Suga opened his mouth to sa—  
   
 “Don’t you dare!”  
   
 Suga chuckled.  
   
   
   
 After talking and watching some shows on the T.V., they eventually turned it off and went back to more talking until they fell into a comfortable silence. They were on the sofa, Suga was sitting at the end while Hinata’s legs were draped across the length of the couch, back against Suga’s side. Suga’s arm was around Hinata’s waist, pulling him closer. It was nice, feeling Hinata’s head on his shoulder and just… being close. Being, so close. Together.  
   
 With the T.V. off and the lights down, there was only slivers of weak moonlight illuminating the room.  
   
 Suga didn’t care about money; this moment was worth anything.  
   
 Suga lifted his hand, running it through Hinata’s soft hair.  
   
 “Hey.”  
   
 Suga paused, looking at him. “Yeah?”  
   
 “It’s past midnight,” muttered Hinata. “I’m not the birthday boy anymore.”  
   
 “Pretty sure it’s until you wake up the next day.”  
   
 “Really?”  
   
 “I don’t know; I don’t make the rules. Pretty sure we can make our own rules.”  
   
 Hinata grinned and looked backwards. “Can you give me one last birthday wish?”  
   
 “Shit,” Suga whispered, “I forgot about the cake. But, sure, what is it?”  
   
 Hinata looked back until he could make eye-contact with Suga. “Can I stay the night?” There was a pause and Hinata smiled softly. “It’s okay if you don’t want me to.”  
   
 “I want you to.”  
   
 “Really?”  
   
 “Don’t go.” Suga nodded. “We can have your birthday cake for breakfast. It’s not huge or anything. We’ll finish it.”  
   
 Hinata grinned. “Do I get to sleep next to you?”  
   
 “If you’re comfortable with that.”  
   
 “What’s my other option, the couch?”  
   
 “Well, I was going to say I’ll sleep on the couch. Birthday boy’s getting the bed.”  
   
 Hinata pouted. “No way, I’m not making you sleep on the couch. And, plus, are you kidding me? I’d so much rather be next to you.”  
   
 Suga grinned.  
   
 “We don’t have to… you know, do anything tonight… if you’d rather take it slow.”  
   
 Suga thought about it and realised, “I don’t know, actually.”  
   
 Hinata moved, slowly, turning himself around and slipping towards Suga, straddling his hips. Although it was dark, he could still make out the soft features of Suga’s face. He playfully poked his cheek before smiling. “Can I kiss you?”  
   
 “Always.”  
   
 Hinata grinned and crossed the distance. Lips against lips once again; a soft kiss, a slow kiss, gentle, careful, lips leisurely moving along one another, stroking each other in a relaxed way.  
   
 Suga moved his arms around Hinata’s waist, pulling him closer. He felt Hinata’s arms around his neck and soon they were even _closer_. Bodies up against each other, Suga felt the warmth, heard Hinata’s breathing through his nose, smelled the cologne Hinata used.  
   
 Hinata moved back, hands moving to the button of his own shirt. “Is it okay if I…?”  
   
 Suga nodded.  
   
 Hinata began unbuttoning his shirt before peeling it off his body. Removing his tie too, he carefully put it aside and looked at Suga. The soft slivers of moonlight in the dark room lit up over Hinata’s skin and Suga put a hand to his chest, slowly moving down, feeling the soft skin as his fingertips grazed Hinata’s body. Suga leaned in, kissing Hinata’s collarbone, then chest, before lifting his head and nipping playfully at Hinata’s shoulder.  
   
 A spark of laughter flashed between them.  
   
 Hinata grinned and moved his hands to Suga’s shirt. “Can I…?”  
   
 “Yeah.”  
   
 Hinata’s hands unwove the buttons one by one, until Suga just threw the shirt off. “That’s going to get wrinkles, creases,” he teased.  
   
 “I’ll iron it.”  
   
 “Mine too?”  
   
 “Yeah.” Suga smiled as he kissed Hinata’s neck, hearing a sharp gasp. “Don’t worry about that.”  
   
 Hinata moved his hands down to Suga’s waist, cupping his sides, before moving up his body, feeling him up.  
   
 “Do…?” Suga asked, little lump in his throat keeping him from asking the rest.  
   
 “Do?” Hinata repeated. “Are we gonna do the do?”  
   
 Suga rolled his eyes, but he couldn’t deny his smile. “Well, yes, I was going to ask if you wanted to… Do you want to, um, move this… to the bedroom?”  
   
 “Yes,” Hinata whispered in a purr. “If you’re okay with that.”  
   
 “I am.”  
   
 “Then let’s go.”  
   
 “Hold on.” Suga put an arm underneath Hinata’s ass before he stood up, lifting them both up.  
   
 With a yelp, Hinata wrapped his legs around Suga’s waist, arms tightening around Suga’s neck. “Don’t drop me!”  
   
 “I won’t.” Suga grinned. “Scared of heights?”  
   
 “Did you just crack a short joke?”  
   
 Suga snickered and kissed him. He moved them to the bedroom, knowing the way around his place with ease. He laid Hinata down and kissed his chest.  
   
 Hinata grinned. He leaned his head back, feeling the soft sheets underneath his back. He undid his belt quickly, not pulling it completely off, just opening it enough that his pants would slip off. Next, of course, was the button and zipper on his pants; when that was finally taken care of, Hinata pushed down the sides, wiggling his hips just a little because he knew he had Suga’s eyes on him.  
   
 Suga helped pull the pants off and then laughed. “Really?”  
   
 “Huh?” Hinata looked at his underwear and grinned. “Yeah.” It was a pair of tight black boxers with neon green four leaf clovers. “It’s for extra good luck…”  
   
 “Well you’re probably going to get lucky without ‘em…”  
   
 “Hmmm, better take them off me then, huh?”  
   
 Suga grinned and grabbed the sides, tugging them off with ease.  
   
 Hinata’s dick, hard, sprung out and he grabbed it, touching himself with a teasing smile. “Like what you see?”  
   
 “Yeah,” Suga breathed out. He dove in, grabbing Hinata’s cock and began stroking it, moving the foreskin over the head and back down again.  
   
 “See?” Hinata grabbed the back of Suga’s neck and pulled him in for a quick kiss. “I wasn’t kidding when I said I was all shaved.”  
   
 “Uhuh, I see that.” Suga kissed him back, with twice as much fervor as before. When Hinata made a cute noise into the kiss, Suga smirked and pushed him back against the mattress, hand still stroking him.  
   
 “Wow,” said Hinata after he broke the kiss. “You use a lot of tongue, huh?”  
   
 “Yeah, sorry?”  
   
 “No!” Hinata shook his head, big smile on his lips. “That was hot. Where’d you learn to kiss like that?”  
   
 “Well… I could teach you.”  
   
 “Oh yeah?”  
   
 Suga smirked and brought their lips together again, mouths opening as his tongue moved again.  
   
 Hinata wiggled his knees as he felt a quiver in his thighs. His hands moved down to Suga’s waistband. He pulled Sugawara closer, raising his ass to feel Suga’s hard-on against him. His fingers unhooked the belt, pulling it off and tossing it to the floor. He groped the outline of Suga’s shaft to feel it, running his thumb along the length.  
   
 Suga broke the kiss to make a noise.  
   
 Hinata grinned. His hands made short work of Suga’s button and zippers before diving in. He fiddled around until he found the hole of Suga’s loose boxers and grabbed it.  
   
 “Fuck,” Suga whispered.  
   
 Hinata’s hand moved up and down Suga’s cock. “Like that?”  
   
 “Yes, fuck.” Suga backed away enough to take off the rest of his clothes.  
   
 Hinata bit his lip. His eyes roamed Suga’s body, glancing to the trimmed patch of grey hair above the hard cock; getting a good look at it, Hinata guessed it was probably a bit above average. He grabbed it again and gave it a teasing squeeze.  
   
 Suga moved back towards him, grabbing Hinata’s cock and returning the teasing squeeze.  
   
 Hinata squirmed a bit, smiling. “Is this okay?”  
   
 “Yeah, more than okay.”  
   
 “Do you wanna go all the way tonight?”  
   
 “Yeah.” Suga let go of Hinata and reached to the bedside table.  
   
 “Condom?”  
   
 “Getting it.” He grabbed the bottle of lube and a condom from the box Oikawa had _strategically_ given him a couple weeks ago. “Here.”  
   
 Hinata took the lube and smeared some on his finger. Hand moving down, he grabbed Suga’s cock and stroked it, lube slicking the motion. He drew up his legs, toes curling. “Wanna finger me?”  
   
 “God yes.” Soon the lube switched hands and their lips locked again. Hinata’s free hand moved up, moving an arm around Suga’s neck, pulling him closer, deepening the kiss. When Suga pushed his first finger in, it was slow and careful, but good. Hinata broke the kiss and let out a satisfied noise, wiggling his hips.  
   
 Suga pushed in the second finger, moving in and out, gaining pace.  
   
 Hinata smiled and opened his eyes, looking into those soft dark brown eyes. He could see Suga watching him, watching him with care, watching for the smallest sign of discomfort or pain. Hinata’s shoulders relaxed and he couldn’t help but kiss Suga again. But the kiss only lasted a little while; Suga’s fingers grazed against a spot inside him. Letting out a little noise again, Hinata kissed Suga’s jawline.  
   
 Sugawara smiled, moving his head down to kiss Hinata’s neck. Kissing, nipping, sucking on the skin under Hinata’s jaw, Suga focused on rubbing slow circles against Hinata’s prostate. Hinata’s hand on his cock felt amazing too; and, after another teasing squeeze, Suga decided it was war.  
   
 “Fuck.” Hinata whimpered as his hand moved faster. “That feels so good, ah. Fuck.”  
   
 “Wow.” Suga chuckled, feeling his cheeks heat up. The more he made the movements, the more Hinata whimpered. The noises—sweet, hot, heavy—were spoken into his ear and Suga swore he was addicted. “You’ve got a little whore mouth, huh?”  
   
 Hinata gasped, cheeks flushing. “Sh-Shush, you’re one to talk!”  
   
 “I-I’m sorry.” Suga laughed nervously. “I don’t know why I said that.”  
   
 “No, it was hot.” Hinata grinned, catching Suga’s lower lip between his teeth. He suckled on it, watching Suga’s eyes go wide, before he let go. “Did you like talking dirty to me? Do it again. Please?”  
   
 Suga’s cheeks burned and he looked down. “T-Touch yourself.”  
   
 Hinata let go of Suga’s cock and his hand grabbed his own length, stroking up and down. “Yeah?”  
   
 “Would it be weird if I said…” Suga swallowed hard, hands still moving in the teasing circles. “That I like seeing you like this?”  
   
 “Like what?”  
   
 “Well…”  
   
 “Say it,” begged Hinata in a whimper.  
   
 “Like… a slut.” Suga expected to Hinata to get mad, but instead that signature foxy smile appeared.  
   
 “Yeah?” Hinata’s hand around Suga’s neck moved and grabbed Suga’s hair. “Yeah but, _your_ slut.” He tugged Suga down and pressed their lips together again.  
   
 Suga kissed him roughly and pushed a third finger inside.  
   
 “Fuck.” Hinata threw his head back. “Fuck me already!”  
   
 “Maybe I want to tease you a bit first…”  
   
 Hinata pouted. While he wanted to get mad, he couldn’t help but wonder just where this new side of Suga had come from?—Not that he was complaining. His knees wiggled, thighs quivered, toes curled. His hand on his cock moved quicker and he rocked himself into Suga’s fingers. “Please! Fuck me, please…”  
   
 Suga’s cheeks were so hot they hurt. He swallowed hard and watched. It was like a fantasy of his coming to life—a twink underneath him, desperate and begging… His voice was low as he muttered, “Condom?”  
   
 Hinata snatched it, tearing the top before pulling the ring out. Despite his pleading and his rush, he put the base at the top of Suga’s cock and slowly, carefully, sensually lowered it until Suga was sheathed. After adding a bit more lube to Suga, he relaxed and looked up. “Now? _Please,_ Suga?”  
   
 “Yeah.” Suga took a breath before pulling his fingers out. He grabbed his cock and pushed it to Hinata’s entrance. “Ready?”  
   
 “Yes yes yes yes yes.”  
   
 Suga pushed inside, closing his eyes as the tight heat surrounded him. Letting out a gasp, he pushed in until every inch was buried inside Hinata. “Fuck, fuuuck.”  
   
 Hinata closed his eyes, feeling it move inside him. He looked up to Suga and couldn’t help but tease, “Little whore mouth.”  
   
 Suga smirked and leaned down, capturing those lips in another kiss. “Can I move or?”  
   
 “Move, move now.”  
   
 Suga pulled out before he pushed in again, a moan rolling out of his mouth. He pulled back again, then bucked his hips forward.  
   
 Hinata squeezed his own cock but his hand was pushed away. He looked down to see Suga’s hand, stroking him, and he closed his eyes, letting the dual feeling take over him. The thrusts were timed with the strokes, perfectly, and Hinata didn’t even realise the sweet noises spilling from his mouth as he called Suga’s name.  
   
 Suga began speeding up, hips moving quicker, thrusting deeper into the feeling. He felt Hinata’s cock twitch in his hand and he gave it another squeeze.  
   
 “Suga,” moaned Hinata. “More, please…”  
   
 Suga’s breathing became audible as he was more than happy to comply.  
   
 Hinata gasped, arching his back and throwing his head back, orange hair becoming a wild mess as a shiver raced through him.  
   
 Seeing Hinata’s neck exposed, Suga leaned in—biting the smooth, flawless skin.  
   
 Hinata cried out, putting both arms around Suga and pulling him closer. “Holy shit.” He closed his eyes. “I’m gonna…”  
   
 Suga sped up; his hand moving faster and faster.  
   
 “Fuck, fuck.” Hinata nuzzled Suga’s cheek and whimpered. “Please, fuck, please! I’m, I’m gonna…”  
   
 “Cum,” Suga whispered. “Come on, cum for me.”  
   
 Hinata closed his eyes, letting out another noise. He shivered, knees twitching, toes still curled. He stroked Suga’s side with his inner thighs as another helpless noise shamelessly left his sweet lips. He wanted more, needed more, but Suga thrust deep inside him every time, hand stroking him faster and faster. The feelings filled him and he gasped, eyes widening. He squeezed Suga’s cock before arching his back again. Stifling his cry into Suga’s neck—he came.  
   
 Hot white spilled between their bodies.  
   
 Suga gasped.  
   
 As he came, Hinata squeezed on Suga.  
   
 The feeling was fucking perfect.  
   
 Suga felt his body shake as he shot his load; he bit down on Hinata’s shoulder and squeezed his eyes shut.  
   
 The two of them stayed still for a moment, heavy breathing filling the silence of the dark room.  
   
 A minute passed.  
   
 So did two more.  
   
 Suga eventually lifted his back and looked down. Hinata was smiling, body laid bare beneath him, and if Suga had been a self-centred man he would have thought it was for his viewing. Suga smiled and looked back up to Hinata’s grin. “Was that good?”  
   
 “Holy shit, yeah, happy birthday to me. It was so hella.”  
   
 “What?”  
   
 “It’s… slang. Yes. It was good.”  
   
 “Oh.” Suga smiled. “Good.”  
   
 Hinata laughed. “Mm, very good.”  
   
 Suga grinned. He grabbed the condom as he pulled out before tossing it in the trash bin. He crashed next to Hinata and smiled. “But the real question… is, was it _bwah_ or _gwah_?”  
   
 “Suga.”  
   
 Suga snorted. “Sorry.”  
   
 “Both,” Hinata answered, “It was definitely both.” After cleaning themselves up and getting under the sheets, Hinata wiggled. “Hey… can I have one more birthday present?”  
   
 “What’s that?”  
   
 “Can we cuddle?”  
   
 Suga grinned and pulled him into his arms. “Yes, please. I can’t remember the last time I cuddled someone.”  
   
 Hinata grinned and rested his head on Suga’s chest, closing his eyes. The sheets were soft, softer than his own, and the bed was warm. “Best birthday ever.”


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry I've been slow at replying to comments! Please don't let it discourage you from giving me mORE. Your kind words are amazing adi oawjdagj oiafjoaidf. Here, have an extra-long chapter! <3
> 
> * * *

 Waking up usually came with stiffness—with soreness, aches, pains, as if his bones had grinded together all night. But… not this time. Suga had slept deeply, deeper than he could remember. His body rested. There was something warm, so warm, in his arms. It smelled nice, it was soft, and it was perfect. Suga’s eyes were closed, but he smiled, taking in the scent of Hinata’s cologne again. Warm. Everything was warm and everything was right.  
   
 Everything was warm, and everything was right.  
   
 Suga was pretty sure one of his arms was numb, the one Hinata was resting on, but he didn’t really care. He adjusted himself, ever so slightly, onto his back and Hinata’s head moved from his shoulder to his chest. Suga moved his numb arm a bit, feeling the blood flow to it once more, and he sighed warmly.  
   
 He closed his eyes.  
   
 Everything was warm and everything was right.  
   
 Suga thought back, wondering when was the last time he had just lain in bed with someone else, feeling the sense of touch, the sense of warmth—the sense of another person—feeling it all. Just lying there, feeling. Feeling like the world was okay. Feeling like he was okay, that everything was okay. Suga felt awfully… content. He didn’t want to move too much, in fear of waking Hinata, but after the tuft of orange hair made a few movements, little nudges to get even more comfortable, Suga smiled. “Are you awake?”  
   
 Hinata made some kind of affirmative noise, akin to a squeak.  
   
 Suga opened his eyes and laughed, leaning over to kiss Hinata’s forehead.  
   
 Hinata grinned, nuzzling into Suga’s neck.  
   
 Suga pulled him closer. “What time do you have to be up?” He almost asked what time Hinata had to be at school, but that would have ruined the moment.  
   
 “Mmm. Ten. Kinda.”  
   
 Suga laughed again. “Kinda?”  
   
 “Well… I have a spare for my first class, then I got art second but—” he yawned “—I’m doing a painting… and I need to give it a bit more time to dry before I do the next layer, so I can’t really do anything. Third class starts… eleven… thirty?”  
   
 “Nice.” Suga smiled, nuzzling into Hinata’s hair.  
   
 “What about you?”  
   
 “I’ve got an afternoon shift, and a night shift.” Suga winced. “So no rush here.”  
   
 “Night shift, ouch.” Hinata snuggled deeper into Suga’s warmth.  
   
 “It’s not too bad.” He kissed the top of his head. “Text me while I’m there?”  
   
 “You bet.” Hinata lifted his head up, blinking his sleepy eyes before looking at Suga. “Am I still the birthday boy?”  
   
 “Sure, why not?”  
   
 Hinata smiled—the smile that made Suga’s heart dance with seagulls, or something—and kissed Suga’s cheek. “You’re the best.”  
   
 “Mmm, nah.” Suga grinned. “Pretty sure that’s you who has that title, no?”  
   
 Hinata huffed.  
   
 Suga’s grin didn’t falter, only got wider. “Well, we can agree to disagree on who’s best. How about that?”  
   
 “Perfect,” Hinata said just before he kissed Suga. The kiss was slow, gentle, and everything he ever wanted. Hinata dipped his head down, kissing Suga’s neck, then his chest.  
   
 “What are you up to?”  
   
 Hinata smiled. “Well, after last night… maybe I want seconds.”  
   
 “So you enjoyed our… cardiovascular activity?”  
   
 “Wow, flirting with a doctor,” muttered Hinata in a mock-disappointed tone before letting out a laugh. “Cardiovascular, really?”  
   
 “Well, yeah…” Suga blushed. “Cardio.”  
   
 “What other vascular system would we have used for sex?”  
   
 “Um… water vascular? Sea stars do it. They have a water vascular system; they suck in sea water to move their arms.” Suga wiggled his arms to emphasise that point. “So that, maybe.”  
   
 “What.” Hinata stared. “What’s a sea star? You mean a starfish?”  
   
 “Well yes, but they’re not fish. So we can’t call them starfish.”  
   
 “That’s so dumb.”  
   
 Suga laughed. “Is it?”  
   
 “Well…” Hinata stared. “They’re not stars either!”  
   
 Suga snorted. “No, I guess not.”  
   
 “And sea cucumbers aren’t cucumbers—I never heard of a sea urchin stealing anyone’s wallet!”  
   
 Suga laughed and ruffled Hinata’s hair. “Okay, okay. I yield. You’re right.”  
   
 “Good.” Hinata nodded, lips curling into a bright smile. “Can I go back to trying to suck you off now?”  
   
 “Go for it!”  
   
 Hinata leaned up and stole a quick kiss from Suga before beginning his trail of hot, wet, open-mouth kisses over Suga’s body.  
   
 “Fuck,” Suga breathed.  
   
 “I’m not even halfway down,” teased Hinata.  
   
 “I just… It’s been like ten years since I got a blowjob.” Suga ruffled Hinata’s hair, effectively pushing him down as well. “Hurry up.”  
   
 Hinata laughed, snickering as he kissed the side of Suga’s half-hard cock. “So you want me to put it in my mouth, huh?”  
   
 “Yes.”  
   
 “Hmm.” Hinata kissed the shaft, then the base, looking up at Suga the entire time. “But how is it gonna get there?”  
   
 Suga grabbed his cock with his right hand and Hinata’s jaw with his left. He stuck it in and warm, wetness surrounded him. He threw his head back. “Fuck.”  
   
 Not expecting Suga to be so decisive, Hinata laughed, effectively coughing on the cock in his mouth.  
   
 “Shit!” Suga sat up, pulling his hips back. “Sorry!”  
   
 “It’s okay!” Hinata was still laughing. He grabbed Suga’s hips and tugged; he pulled him back down in front of him. He grabbed Suga’s cock and stroked it teasingly, rolling the skin over the head and back down again. Closing his eyes, he pushed it in his mouth, giving it a hard suck.  
   
 “Shit.” Suga bucked his hips up into the heat, already feeling his knees tingle and his toes curl. Hinata’s mouth was perfect—the heat, the saliva, the way Hinata twirled his tongue around his head, the way he bobbed his mouth on it, the pressure from the sucks—Suga let out a noise and closed his eyes, throwing his head back.  
   
 Hinata kept bobbing his head. Watching Suga reacting to and enjoying his every action was the best sight he had ever seen. It encouraged him, encouraged him to move more, to suck a little harder, to bob his head quicker.  
   
 Suga squirmed and gasped.  
   
 If smirking was easier with a dick in his mouth, Hinata would have smirked.  
   
 Suga put a hand into Hinata’s hair, grabbing a tuft of orange strands. His hips were practically moving on their own, pushing deeper and deeper into that mouth. He looked down, eyes wide with lust as he saw Hinata staring right back at him. “Shit, I’m gonna…”  
   
 Hinata barely pulled the cock out of his mouth before hot white shot on his face. He closed one eye just in time. Hinata laughed, tasting some that had managed to get in his mouth.  
   
 “S-Sorry.” Suga grabbed a tissue from the box by his bed before wiping Hinata’s face. “Sorry.”  
   
 “It’s okay.” Hinata laughed, opening his other eye when it was clean again. “Most guys would be like, ‘Yeah slut’, or whatever.”  
   
 “Can we not compare me to your other sugar daddies?”  
   
 “I was talking about pornstars, actually.”  
   
 “Let’s definitely not compare me to pornstars.” Suga sighed. “I barely lasted.”  
   
 “Don’t care.” Hinata crawled up and kissed Suga’s shoulder. “That was the hottest beejay I ever gave. You’re like, really expressive! Y’know?”  
   
 Suga’s cheeks flushed. “Thanks?” He felt Hinata—hard—against his stomach and he instinctively grabbed the cock, giving it a squeeze. When Hinata’s hips wiggled and he squirmed, Suga couldn’t help but grin. “Can I return the favour?”  
   
 “Mmm, do I get the honour of Doctor Sugawara sucking me off?”  
   
 “Don’t do that.”  
   
 Hinata bursts into guffaws. Somehow, he spoke through the laughter, “Your!” he barely managed to say, “Your face! When I said that!”  
   
 “Yeah, yeah yeah.” Suga smirked and flipped them over, making Hinata yelp—laughter gone. “Want a blowjob or not, birthday boy?”  
   
 “Yes please!”  
   
 “Please?” Suga nipped his chest. “You’re awfully polite all of a sudden.”  
   
 “Mhm.” Hinata nodded, smiling wide. “I’ll be good.”  
   
 “I trust you.” Suga kissed his shoulder, then his arm, then his chest. “I like you like this,” he said as he looked up. “Mine; almost… vulnerable, asking please.” His cheeks reddened. “Is that weird?”  
   
 “No way.” Hinata wiggled his hips. “I’m all yours.”  
   
 “Good.” Suga kissed his chest again, then down to his stomach, then lower to just above Hinata’s cock. He grabbed it and gave another squeeze. Hinata wiggled for him and Suga laughed. “It’s been so long since I sucked anyone off… I’d love to get right to it, you know, but since you were teasing me…”  
   
 Hinata wiggled again. “Please?”  
   
 Suga kissed the shaft, then dipped lower to kiss the base.  
   
 Hinata’s cheeks warmed to a pink. “Please? Please?”  
   
 Suga kissed his thigh. “One more time.”  
   
 Hinata’s cheeks burned to a red. “Please, Suga! Please!”  
   
 “Good boy,” teased Suga for the last time before slipping it into his mouth.  
   
 Hinata arched his back and ran a hand through Suga’s hair.  
   
 Suga relaxed his throat, easily slipping the entire five inches into his mouth. He nuzzled the hairless base and looked up to see Hinata’s eyes wide. He lifted his head until it slipped out of his mouth and then ran his tongue along the side. He kissed the underside then slipped it back in his mouth—taking it all into his throat until he was nuzzling the base again.  
   
 Hinata put a hand to his mouth, hiding the pitiful squirmy noise that was about to leave his throat. He closed his eyes, focusing intently on the heat that practically consumed him. His breathing became heavier and his knees wiggled. He felt like his knees were going to give out—and he wasn’t even standing.  
   
 Suga bobbed his head, from tip to base, over and over.  
   
 “Holy shit,” whispered Hinata as he opened one eye, needing to watch Suga take a whole cock in his mouth. He arched his back and gasped. “Sugaaa.”  
   
 Suga let it slip out of his mouth and he began kissing the side. “Say my name.”  
   
 “Suga,” repeated Hinata, lust coating his warm voice. “Suga!”  
   
 Suga pushed the head in and gave it a suck, twirling his tongue around the head over and over, watching Hinata squirm.  
   
 “Suga!” Hinata jerked his hips up. “I’m gonna cum.”  
   
 Suga continued bobbing his head, watching, always watching Hinata. Hinata, with his heated skin and desperate voice, calling his name.  
   
 “Fuck!” Hinata cried out as his back arched, eyes closed, breath hitched—he came.  
   
 Suga swallowed the load and then licked Hinata clean. “Happy birthday.”  
   
 Hinata took a second to catch his breath before he laughed. “Thanks.”  
   
 Suga kissed his thigh, then his stomach.  
   
 Hinata ruffled Suga’s hair and grinned. “Can I use your shower?”  
   
 “Do I get to join you?”  
   
 “Do I only get to shower if you join me?”  
   
 Suga pouted, actually pouted. “Do I strike you as that kind of guy?”  
   
 “Of course not,” teased Hinata, “But I like it when you’re mean.”  
   
 Suga’s lips tugged into a small smile that only grew larger into a smirk. “Then yes.”  
   
   
   
 “Can I borrow some clean clothes?”  
   
 “Sure.”  
   
   
   
 Suga poured hot water in a teapot and then grabbed the little bulb of tea. He put the tea on a hot pad and pointed at it before dropping the little green thing inside.  
   
 Hinata blinked. “What’s that?”  
   
 “Just watch.” Suga winked. He turned his back and then opened the fridge. He busied himself with getting the cake out, a decadent, rich chocolate cake. It was log-shaped and Suga cut rather generous slices before putting them on two plates. He turned around, putting both plates down, and grabbed two forks. “There’s more if you want.” When he looked up, he grinned.  
   
 Hinata’s eyes were wide, staring at the teapot.  
   
 The flowering tea was wrapped up in jasmine green tea leaves, hand rolled. In the hot water, the leaves opened and the flower bloomed, little by little, in twitches, but sometimes it jumped up in bursts. It continued to grow until the flower had fully blossomed, making the water a reddish colour.  
   
 “Whoa,” whispered Hinata. Before Suga could speak—“BWAHHHHH.”  
   
 Suga laughed, shaking his head.  
   
 “It was like, it was like… yip yip,” Hinata said as he made weird upward movements with his hands, “But then it was like sploosh!” Hinata closed his hands into fists. “And then it was like fwop fwop!” He stretched his fingers outwards. “And then geh! And then bwaaaahh! Bwaaaahh! Gwaaah!”  
   
 Suga nodded. “Bwaaaahh indeed.”  
   
 “No,” whined Hinata, “You’re not loud enough!” He grinned. “Anyway, that’s so cool! It’s like a flower in your teapot.” He poked the glass. “Does it make the teapot dirty, though? The water’s all red.”  
   
 Suga grinned as he grabbed two mugs. “Do you want some?” He began pouring and he watched Hinata’s mind explode.  
   
 “We can! Drink! It!?”  
   
 “You’re about to drink the bwahh.”  
   
 “Holy shit!” Hinata jumped out of his chair, practically bouncing. “Whoa!”  
   
  Suga offered the mug and watched Hinata take it. “Be careful,” he warned, “It’s hot.”  
   
 Hinata blew on the tea for a bit before tasting it.  
   
 “Is it bwahh?”  
   
 “No way…” Hinata shook his head. “It’s totally gwaahh, but with this total touch of woosh-fwu-PAM! You know?”  
   
 “You stole the words right out of my mouth.” Suga shook his head, smiling. “That’s practically theft.”  
   
 “Huh?”  
   
 Suga just laughed. “Nothing.”  
   
 The tea was a mix of green and herbal, mostly tasting of raspberries. Although Suga didn’t plan it, the flavours of chocolate and raspberries worked well. After two slices each and Hinata working through his third, Suga smiled. “How is it?”  
   
 “Oh my god, the cake and the tea it’s just… Suga, it’s amazing.”  
   
 “Wow, that’s an actual word.”  
   
 “Huh?”  
   
 “Well it’s usually bwahh or gwahh, you said amazing this time. It’s an actual word.”  
   
 “Um.” Hinata blinked, confused. “Bwah and gwah are words too.”  
   
 Suga stared at him. A minute passed. “You’re completely serious, aren’t you?”  
   
 “Uh.” Hinata tilted his head. “Well, yeah?”  
   
 Suga leaned over and kissed his cheek. Hinata was still confused, but he forgot about that and smiled because a cute kiss from Suga could end wars.  
   
   
   
 “Where do you want me to drop you off? At school?”  
   
 “I still have to get my stuff from home. It’s close to the school. You know where that is, right?”  
   
 “I went there.”  
   
 “Twenty years ago,” teased Hinata, “You coulda forgotten, you know?”  
   
 “Mhm.” Suga smiled. “I remember. Don’t worry.”  
   
 “Well it’s a couple blocks from school. We walk every morning.”  
   
 Suga noted the plural but didn’t comment. “Do you mind me dropping you off at your door?”  
   
 “Hmm. Usually I’d say a couple blocks away… because, you know, explaining the whole sugar daddy thing, eh… But, nobody’s gonna be home now, so yeah.”  
   
 “Okay.” Suga didn’t mind. “Your call.”  
   
 Hinata nodded. “It’ll be fine.”  
   
 It didn’t take Suga long to find the place with Hinata’s directions (which did include Hinata mixing up right and left every time but they managed, eventually). It was a nice place, only one floor and a basement, but it was in an older residential area that had a kind of small-town feel to it. It was cute. When Suga parked, Hinata leaned over and kissed the corner of his mouth.  
   
 Suga smiled.  
   
 Hinata grinned. “Thank you, Suga.”  
   
 “You’re welcome.”  
   
 “But, like, seriously. Thank you. That was awesome. The opera, the sex, the cuddling, the cake and the tea… You’re amazing. I had an awesome birthday. Thank you.”  
   
 “You’re more than welcome.” Suga brought a hand up and cupped Hinata’s cheek. “It was all pretty bwahh for me too.”  
   
 Hinata frowned. “Are you making fun of me?”  
   
 Suga chuckled, giving an apologetic look. “Just a little. Kiss me?”  
   
 Hinata leaned over and pressed their lips together. When he pulled away, he had a little pout, not wanting to go. “Bye,” he said softly, voice low and unwilling.  
   
 “Wait.” Suga patted his pocket before he pulled out the letter, the payment. “Here.”  
   
 “Oh oops. I totally forgot.”  
   
 Suga smiled as Hinata took it. He stroked Hinata’s cheek with his thumb. “Be safe.”  
   
 “Safe?”  
   
 “I don’t know: Make good choices?”  
   
 “I’m pretty much going to be working on art projects and playing video games whenever I won’t be with you, so…”  
   
 Suga smiled. “Text me if you get lonely.”  
   
 Hinata immediately pulled out his phone and sent a text.  
   
 When Suga’s phone buzzed, he rolled his eyes. “Okay, cute. Get out.”  
   
 Hinata burst into another laughing fit. Stealing one more kiss, he eventually got out of the car. He leaned on the car door and looked through the open window. “I’ll try to see you soon, okay?”  
   
 “Okay.” Suga nodded. “I’d like that. A lot.”  
   
 Hinata grinned wide and backed away, waving his goodbye as he walked off.  
   
   
   
 When Saturday came Hinata spent the day with his friends for his birthday. When the next Saturday came, Hinata couldn’t make plans. Hinata could the week after, but Suga ended up getting roped into doing a shift that day. As much fun as texting was, Suga wanted to see him again. He wanted more. If Suga had been a romantic, he’d probably call it an addiction.  
   
   
   
  _[Shouyou Hinata: hey]  
   
 [Koushi Sugawara: Hi. :)]  
   
 [Shouyou Hinata: uhhhhhh can i ask you something and if you dun wanna thats fine but i kinda need a favour?]  
   
 [Koushi Sugawara: What is it? Money? ]  
   
 [Koushi Sugawara: Is something wrong? Are you okay?]  
   
 [Shouyou Hinata: i'm okay and its not money can i call u?]  
   
 [Koushi Sugawara: I have my break in two hours. Can it wait until then?]  
   
 [Shouyou Hinata: yea sorry to bother u]  
   
 [Koushi Sugawara: Don’t be sorry.  <3]_  
   
   
   
 To say Suga was worried would have been a little tiny miniscule bit of an understatement, maybe. Suga breathed in, breathed out, doing timed respiratory exercises to activate his parasympathetic nervous system and slow his heart rate. He walked out of the elevator to go towards the cafeteria as he pulled his phone out, hitting Hinata’s name and putting the phone to his ear.  
   
  _“Hi?”_ came a quiet voice.  
   
 “Hey.” Suga forced a smile. “Hinata?”  
   
  _“Hi… are you busy? It’s okay if you are.”_  
   
 “I’m on break, just getting coffee.” He stood in line, which, luckily, was only a couple people. “So no.”  
   
  _“Oh, okay.”_  
   
 “What’s wrong?” Suga didn’t get a response and he sighed, grabbing a Styrofoam cup. “Hinata. You’re scaring me.”  
   
  _“Sorry!”_  
   
 “It’s okay,” he assured. “Just tell me what’s going on, okay?”  
   
  _“Well, I just, I don’t want to make you worry! I just, okay so like, I don’t want to make you feel like I’m kinda forcing a decision on you? – and if you don’t want to, that’s totally cool okay?”_  
   
 Suga poured coffee in the cup and then added some milk. He walked towards the cashier, grabbing a bagel on the way. “Dancing around the problem…” He paused to pay for his coffee, offering a bill, muttering a thank you and adding the change to the tip jar. “Dancing around the problem isn’t going to help me stop worrying.” He tucked the brown paper bag the bagel was in under his arm and grabbed the coffee with his free hand. “Please stop being vague.”  
   
 Hinata sighed on the other end.  
   
 “I care about you… you do know that, right?”  
   
  _“Yeah… I do. I care about you too, so much! I just… I feel like it’s crossing a line to ask, kinda?”_  
   
 “Well, we’ll find out when you ask.”  
   
  _“You’re right. Sorry. Well, okay, I sort of need a place to stay for a while.”_  
   
 Suga almost walked towards the elevator but remembered his reception would go out. He ended up walking up the stairs which went around the elevator. He could use the exercise. “What’s going on?”  
   
  _“You know what, nevermi—”_  
   
 “Wait,” Suga interrupted. He walked down the hall. “Yes. You can stay.”  
   
 Hinata sighed out of relief.  
   
 Suga pushed the door open to his office and walked in. “What’s going on?” Instead of a reply, he got an angry huff. Suga took a deep breath and put his coffee down on his desk, then his bagel. “Right. You don’t like it when people get forceful.” There was no reply, but Suga wasn’t too bothered by it. “I’m sorry. I’m just worried. You’re not in any kind of danger, are you? Just tell me if you’re safe; that’s all I want to know.”  
   
  _“I’m safe, I’m safe. Don’t, I mean, it’s not like that… You know how my family life is kinda, shitty?”_  
   
 “You’ve mentioned it once or twice.”  
   
  _“Well, yeah… So I kind of stay at my friend’s place. Tsuki.”_  
   
 “Right.” Suga nodded as he wrestled the bagel out of the brown paper bag. “The useless bisexual.”  
   
 Hinata burst into laughter.  
   
 A third voice suddenly asked, “What?”  
   
 Suga whirled around.  
   
 Saeko Tanaka—the blond woman who he shared an office with—stared at him, blinking once, twice.  
   
 “It makes sense in context!”  
   
  _“What?”_  
   
 Saeko snorted.  
   
 Suga’s eyes shifted back to his cellphone. “Sorry, another doctor kind of overheard that.” Hearing more laughter, Suga huffed. “It’s not funny!”  
   
 Saeko chuckled.  
   
 Suga gave her a teasing glare before he smiled as well. “Anyway, can we please get on with your story?” He walked around his desk and took a seat at his wheelie chair.  
   
  _“Right! Sorry!”_ He laughed a little bit more before sobering up. _“So, um… yeah. I live with my friend Tsuki. His parents are gone like, ten or eleven months out of the year. They just kind of leave him alone, so he offered me a place to stay since… well, he knows my parents, so… Anyway, his parents don’t really like that? I’ve offered to pay rent or to do anything, but they just said no. Um, anyway, so they’re coming back for a while, right? So…”_  
   
 “So you can’t be there.”  
   
  _“Yeah. Whenever this happens, I usually go live with my parents again but I just… I can’t. I don’t want to… I just… I can’t!”_ he yelled, suddenly, then sucked in his breath. _“Sorry… I’m sorry… I didn’t mean to…”_  
   
 “It’s okay,” whispered Suga. “That’s fine. Stay with me. As long as you want.”  
   
  _“R-Really?”_  
   
 “Yes.”  
   
  _“And um, since I’ll be living under your roof for a bit, dates will be free okay?”_  
   
 “Okay. We can discuss that later. We’ll come to an agreement.”  
   
  _“Oh my God, Suga…”_ there was the sound of a hiccup, then some strange noise.  
   
 Suga blinked. “Hinata?” He heard another hiccup-like noise and he swallowed hard. “Are you…?”  
   
  _“I’m sorry, I’m sorry…”_  
   
 “You’re crying.”  
   
  _“I’m sorry, I know I’m being such a, such a b-baby, but I’m just so relieved.”_  
   
 “Let it out.” Suga smiled. “Better out than in.”  
   
  _“Y-You’re right,”_ the shaky voice replied, _“Thank you so much oh my God you’re so perfect.”_  
   
 “Nah.” Suga put down his bagel, which he still didn’t get a chance to take a bite out of, and grabbed his coffee, taking a sip. “You can come over whenever you want, okay?”  
   
 After another sob, _“Tonight?”_  
   
 “Sure. I’ll pick you up if you want.”  
   
  _“Please. I know his parents aren’t coming home for a bit, but…”_  
   
 “Do you not like living with Tsuki?”  
   
  _“I do, he’s really cool. Totally useless. Useless. Useless bisexual. I walk in on him making out with Yamaguchi all the time, and he’s the worst roommate! He drinks all the milk then makes me go to the store to buy more. But, you know, he’s a really sweet guy underneath the layers of asshole. I just, I don’t want to be the reason Tsuki fights with his parents again.”_  
   
 Suga listened, nodding. “Is that the only reason you’re crying?”  
   
  _“N-No… I just, I thought you would say like, hell no. It just, it makes me happy, so happy, that people like you exist, you know?”_  
   
 “Hinata… that was really lame.”  
   
  _“God, I know!”_ He laughed. _“I know, but I like that I don’t…. have to try hard, around you… I don’t have to pretend to be anyone else but me. You like me, for all my gwahs and bwahhs.”_  
   
 “And your fwooms and your yip yops.”  
   
 A sigh. _“It’s yip yip or fwip fwop. Please don’t mix them up.”_  
   
 “I’m sorry.” Suga chuckled. “I’m still learning after all.”  
   
 Hinata laughed as well and Suga could practically hear the smile through his voice when he spoke, _“It’s nice, being liked unconditionally by you. I like you that way too, even if you make fun of me from time to time… I’m sorry, I’m probably using your whole break.”_  
   
 “No, no, it’s…” He glanced to the clock. “Shit.”  
   
  _“See?”_  
   
 “I still have fifteen minutes left,” Suga admitted. “But I just have to send a couple emails.”  
   
  _“I’ll let you go, okay?”_  
   
 “Okay. I’ll see you tonight?”  
   
  _“Sure. What time?”_  
   
 “Um.” Suga looked at the clock again. “Text me. We’ll figure it out.”  
   
  _“You’re amazing, Suga. You’re totally gwaah.”_  
   
 “You’re pretty bwahh yourself, buddy.”  
   
   
   
 Saeko had teased the living shit out of him, but Suga didn’t mind too much. He managed to get off a little early, as the sun was setting, and he pulled up to the house. He saw the front door open little after he got there and Hinata was talking to someone at the front entrance. Suga opened his car door and stepped out. He noted Hinata’s suitcase, a small carry-on, and he opened the trunk.  
   
 There were a couple people, around Hinata’s age.  
   
 There was a blond with glasses that Hinata kissed his cheek, and Glasses smacked the back of Hinata’s head. Then there was Freckles, who laughed and pulled Hinata into a big hug. There was a third person who followed Hinata as he walked to the car. The third one was yelling something or another, “Do you even know him?”, “What the fuck, Shouyou?”, “You’re a dumbass! Dumbass Shouyou!”, “This is the guy you got tested for?”, while Hinata mostly ignored him, muttering a “Came back clean, didn’t I?” as he walked to Suga.  
   
 Hinata grinned. “Hi.”  
   
 “Hey.” Suga smiled back.  
   
 “Kageyama, this is my boyfriend Sugawara; Suga, this is my best friend the idiot Kageyama.”  
   
 “Dumbass!”  
   
 Suga stared. “Nice to meet you too…”  
   
  “He was talking to me,” explained Hinata, “Dumbass usually means me.”  
   
 “Oh.” Suga forced a smile. “Well, nice to meet you.”  
   
 Kageyama just glared at Suga, sizing him up. “Who the fuck are you?”  
   
 “Uh, the boyfriend?”  
   
 Kageyama kept glaring. “I know your face. I’ll find you. You lay one finger on Shouyou and I’ll destroy you.”  
   
 It was only then Suga noticed Hinata wasn’t next to him. He glanced over to see Hinata closing the trunk (Suga assumed the suitcase was inside) and then looked back to Kageyama. “You’ll destroy me?”  
   
 “Yes.”  
   
 “Tobio.” Hinata walked over and punched his shoulder. “Don’t be a shit to my boyfriend.”  
   
 Kageyama turned his glare to him. “Don’t do anything stupid.”  
   
 “I care about you too. Plus, you’ll see me at school. It’s fine. Don’t worry.”  
   
 Kageyama’s eyes softened. “Just don’t…”  
   
 “I said it’s fine.” Hinata put his hands on his hips, huffing.  
   
 Kageyama sighed. “Fine.”  
   
 “Good.” Hinata pulled him into a hug.  
   
 Kageyama hugged back, muttering a “Dumbass.”  
   
 “You too, buddy.” He patted Kageyama’s head, which caused the death glare to return. “You too.”  
   
 “Just—”  
   
 “Shh.” Hinata motioned to Suga. “Look at him. He’s a twig. I could beat him up.”  
   
 Kageyama looked at Suga, up and down, and then nodded. “You’re right.” He looked back at Hinata. “Just remember…”  
   
 “Yep yep, I know. Smash the upper jaw, then quick left hook.”  
   
 Kageyama nodded.  
   
 Hinata rolled his eyes. “Come on, let’s go.” He gave a small wave to his other two friends before getting in the car.  
   
 Suga opened the door and got in as well. “That was interesting.”  
   
 “Sorry about that.”  
   
 “It’s okay.” Suga put the car into drive and began driving. “He was… friendly.”  
   
 “Kageyama’s a special cookie, that’s for sure.”  
   
 “Jaw and left hook?”  
   
 “He likes to pretend he’s more useful than he is.”  
   
 Suga laughed as he focused on the road. “Boyfriend, huh?”  
   
 “Sorry… it’s just, easier than sugar daddy.”  
   
 “No, it’s okay.” Suga smiled. “I don’t mind.”  
   
 Hinata grinned. “Shut up!”  
   
 Suga glanced over for half a second. “What?”  
   
 “You make me happy so just.” Hinata huffed. “Shut up.”  
   
 “Okay,” Suga said with a smile.  
   
   
   
 “Sure this is okay?”  
   
 “Yes, Hinata.”  
   
 “Thank you, Suga.” Hinata put his clothes in one of the unused dresser. He put a couple books on the desk and began settling in. “Have I ever told you you’re perfect?”  
   
 Suga rolled his eyes. “Most likely.”  
   
 Unable to hold his feelings in, Hinata charged across the apartment and tackled Suga onto the couch. Suga yelped and Hinata burst into a giggling fit, shoving his face into Suga’s chest.  
   
 “Easy. Watch it,” Suga muttered with only smiles in his voice. He pulled Hinata into a hug, bringing him in close. “What was that?”  
   
 “Nothing, I’m sorry—I just really like you and I’m really happy.”  
   
 Suga kissed Hinata’s forehead.  
   
 The door opened.  
   
 A voice that could only be Oikawa’s called out, “I’m stealing milk, Sugar Sweetie!”  
   
 “Okay,” Suga answered. Hinata opened his mouth but Suga put a finger to his lips, shaking his head. Hinata did giggle, but Oikawa left before he noticed.  
   
 Hinata tilted his head. “You don’t like Oikawa?”  
   
 “No, he’s great. I just have a feeling he won’t leave if he knows you’re here. He’s giving me a headache when he goes on and on about how I should buy him a castle for hooking us up, and because he gave me that box of condoms and found one was missing.”  
   
 “Creep.” Hinata laughed.  
   
 “Oh.” Suga shifted a little. “Speaking of condoms.”  
   
 “Hm?”  
   
 “Well, I swallowed your cum, and you swallowed some of mine, so I got tested just in case. I came back clean.”  
   
 “Oh.” Hinata blinked. “Same here. Clean.”  
   
 “Awesome.”  
   
 They stared at each other for a minute.  
   
 “So,” Suga said as he nudged him. “Now that that’s out of the way, can we go back to cuddling?”  
   
 “Of course!” Hinata wrapped both arms around Suga’s neck and nuzzled his cheek. “You know, you’re my first guy who really wants to snuggle.”  
   
 “I’m the worst,” Suga admitted, pulling Hinata infinitely times closer, nuzzling his cheek. “I’d pay a hooker for cuddles if they could give me a good price.”  
   
 Hinata laughed. “Well, I’m about to cuddle you your money’s worth!”  
   
 “Bring it on.”  
   
   
   
 The next morning, Suga made blueberry and chocolate chip pancakes, made from scratch and Hinata practically cried tears of pure joy. Over the next few days they adjusted, discussing rides; Suga could usually pick up or drop off Hinata, but if not there were the bus routes. The buses took an hour, with a roundabout route, while Suga driving would only be twenty minutes. They discussed some of the finer points, free dates for one, and the fact that Suga would be Hinata’s ‘boyfriend’ if they bumped into anyone Hinata knew.  
   
 Boyfriend.  
   
 Suga found himself smiling like an idiot.  
   
 It was nice; it worked.  
   
 With Suga’s hectic schedule changing every few days, he still managed to get a couple hours of Hinata even on bad days since Hinata was always at his home, waiting for him. They found themselves spending time together in casual ways, mostly watching dumb shows or silly stuff. When Suga got home at three in the morning and slipped under the sheets, Hinata was just… happy to see him.  
   
 It wasn’t what he was used to.  
   
 It wasn’t the pissed off, “You woke me up”, not an “Again?”, not an angry sigh.  
   
 Hinata pulled him into a hug, muttering about how cold Suga was, and then considered it his job to warm him up with body heat and cuddles.  
   
   
   
 Suga found himself waking up with more energy, too. While errands used to be the most annoying thing in the world, he didn’t mind them much anymore. Especially not when they were from Hinata.  
   
  _[Shouyou Hinata: ack i kinda forgot my art binder at ur place but i need it for afterschool, culd u bring it for me when you pick me up?]  
   
 [Koushi Sugawara: Sure, babe.]  
   
 [Shouyou Hinata:  <3<3<3<3]  
   
 [Koushi Sugawara: Which one is it?]  
   
 [Shouyou Hinata: the black one with a doodle of angry kageyama biting off yamaguchguch’s head off]  
   
 [Koushi Sugawara: Ah. Yes. I know the one. Do you want me to bring it in?]  
   
 [Shouyou Hinata: if it’s not a problem then yeah, art room is in the basement]  
   
 [Koushi Sugawara: Is it still 002?]  
   
 [Shouyou Hinata: yep! Ur perfect]  
   
 [Koushi Sugawara: You’re*]  
   
 [Shouyou Hinata: dont]_  
   
 It was weird, actually, walking the halls that he used to. It had been twenty years since he’d been in the school (probably nineteen, but he wasn’t interested in specifics). Suga looked around, noting the small differences (like the colour of the walls—better, by his standards). He made his way to the art room and found it largely… the same. When he was a student, it changed every year since a new set of student work would be on display. It felt like just another year had passed.  
   
 “Fixed the light,” Suga muttered as he stared at the ceiling. He surveyed the empty room until he saw that orange tuft of hair working with a paintbrush on a canvas. Suga walked over slowly, putting down the portfolio carefully, not wanting to disturb Hinata.  
   
 Hinata finished his brushstroke before turning his head, big smile on his lips. “Hi!”  
   
 “Hey.” Suga leaned down and stole a quick kiss. He pulled up a chair and stared at the canvas. “Oh, wow… it looks… cute.”  
   
 Hinata laughed, loud.  
   
 To be honest, Suga was impressed; it was a renaissance-style painting of a child being hung by a noose. “I like the colours. Are you trying Shimizu’s style?”  
   
 “Mhm!” Hinata nodded. “I got really inspired from her gallery so I wanted to try it. It’s really hard.”  
   
 “Well, it’s weird for sure.” Suga glanced to all the other people in the painting, paying the corpse no mind. “But it’s really good. I had no idea you were so… well rounded.”  
   
 “Shush,” Hinata said as he blushed. “Asshole.”  
   
 Suga just smiled.  
   
 Hinata put his paintbrush down. “I should pack up.”  
   
 “No, it’s okay.” Suga shook his head. “Take as much time as you need.”  
   
 “You sure?”  
   
 “Positive.”  
   
 Hinata leaned over and kissed his cheek.  
   
 Suga ruffled his hair and looked around. “Do you always sit in the corner?”  
   
 “Okay, I know it’s dumb, but I have a favourite table.” He pointed to the one right next to the canvas, where his books and whatnot were on. “It’s got this cool dent in it. At the centre.”  
   
 Suga stared at it. “Oh. Wow. They haven’t changed their tables in twenty years.”  
   
 “Hm?” Hinata stared at him. “You know the dent-y table? He’s cool, isn’t he?”  
   
  “He hurts your back,” murmured Suga.  
   
 “Your back? Why was your back on this table?”  
   
 Suga’s lips tugged into a smile. “I got fucked on that table, actually.”  
   
 Hinata’s eyes widened. “Seriously?”  
   
 “Yep.” Suga got up and looked around.  
   
 “Oh my God.” Hinata shook his head. “Oh, by the way—”  
   
 “—Don’t touch anything, right?”  
   
 “Yep.”  
   
 “Got it.” Suga walked around, examining all the different things on display. At the centre there was an amalgamation of metal objects which made a three-dimensional display. He walked around it, seeing it from every angle. He glanced back to Hinata every once in a while, who was focused on his painting, and Suga smiled. It wasn’t until he walked to the other side of the room that he heard a voice.  
   
 “Shouyou?”  
   
 “Yeah?” Hinata looked up.  
   
 “Oh just making sure you’re still here.” A man walked into the room, eyes drifting to… “Koushi?”  
   
 Suga blinked once, twice. “Daichi?”  
   
 Hinata stared between the two of them.  
   
 Daichi opened his mouth, about to swear with a “Holy shi-i-i—d-darn.”  
   
 Suga glanced to Hinata, then back at Daichi. “I’m pretty sure he’s heard the word before.”  
   
 Daichi smiled. “Wow. You look good.”  
   
 “You do too.” Suga walked over and pulled Daichi into a hug, feeling those strong arms around him. He backed away and looked at him. “What are you doing here?”  
   
 “I teach, actually. I’m the art teacher.”  
   
 “Really?” Suga laughed. “It suits you. You seem like the pushover teacher that suddenly gets scary when he’s mad.”  
   
 Hinata piped up with a, “He is!”  
   
 Daichi laughed and eyed Suga one more time. “What are you doing here? I haven’t heard from you since you got accepted to med’ school.”  
   
 “Ah, yeah.” Suga scratched his head. “Nobody really heard from me after that. Med’ school was exhausting. But I’m actually here to pick up Hinata.”  
   
 “I just need a couple more minutes!”  
   
 “No rush.”  
   
 Daichi smiled. “You’re here to pick Hinata up?”  
   
 “Pick up Hinata,” Suga corrected. “Prepositions don’t go at the end of a sentence.”  
   
 Daichi stared at him. “You haven’t changed.”  
   
 “Sorry.” Suga scratched the back of his head.  
   
 Daichi just smiled. “Well, stay as long you like. Wow… it’s good to see you again.”  
   
 “Yeah.” Suga grinned. “It brings back memories.”  
   
 Hinata looked between them and then his jaw dropped. “Oh my God!” They both looked at him. “The guy who fucked you on dent-y table was Mr. Sawamura?”  
   
 Daichi’s cheeks flushed. “Koushi!”  
   
 Suga’s cheeks burned and he looked away. “I didn’t expect you to be here, it just kinda fell out of my mouth when I saw the table!”  
   
 Daichi laughed it off, nervously, shaking his head. “Why would you even be talking about sex with my student?” And then the laughter stopped. Daichi stared at him. “Oh.” Disgust filled his eyes and he took a step back. “Koushi…”  
   
 Suga felt his chest squeeze. “I can explain…”  
   
 “He’s a student.”  
   
 “Above the age of consent!”  
   
 “A high school student.”  
   
 “He’s eighteen, a legal adult.”  
   
 Daichi frowned. “Koushi…” He eyed him careful. “Can I… talk to you privately, outside?”  
   
 Suga glanced once to Hinata who looked like his world was about to crumble.  
   
   
   
 They stepped out into the hall. Suga tried to ease the tension, “Wow, I really feel like a teacher pulled me aside.”  
   
 “This isn’t the time for jokes.”  
   
 Suga sighed, running a hand through his hair. “I know what you’re going to say, okay? You’re heavy on morals. I like that about you—I’ve always liked that about you. And, yes, I was more of a trouble-maker than you were… example, asking you to, you know, on that table, but…” He took a deep breath. “I know boundaries, and I’m not doing anything I deem unethical.”  
   
 Daichi crossed his arms. “Even so… that kind of age gap…”  
   
 “He’s with me because he wants to be.” Suga stood firm. “I’m not manipulating him or anything like that. I know there’s an age gap, but he’s an adult, and he’s mature for his age. We get along well.”  
   
 Daichi frowned… but this time he used _that_ frown™.  
   
 Suga sighed. “What? What do you want me to do? What do you possibly want me to say?” He frowned right back at Daichi. “Just break it off with him? Is that what you think is best? He makes me so happy; you have no idea. And I make him happy, I just… everything I do is to make him smile. He’s so… he’s so, unbelievably perfect. He doesn’t deserve any of the shit he’s going through.”  
   
 Daichi’s eyes softened.  
   
 “Sorry, you’ve barely said anything…”  
   
 “You care about him?”  
   
 “Yes.” Suga looked at his feet. “More than anything.”  
   
 “Then… take care of him.”  
   
 Suga looked up.  
   
 Daichi looked away. “Whatever you do, just care for him. Take care of him. If you don’t look close you might think he’s got his life together since he knows what he wants to do. He’s already working towards it, but…”  
   
 Suga blinked. “But?”  
   
 “It’s on the surface, really,” Daichi muttered before looking back at Suga. “He doesn’t have much of a plan B, or a plan C. He’s a bit stuck in his ways, too. He won’t do any more or less than what he’s planned to do, but that’s… Life’s a lot more random than that. I don’t know how to explain it. I don’t even know what I’m saying, Koushi, but just promise me… promise me if what’s between you two is real, that you’ll take care of him.”  
   
 “I will.”  
   
 “Promise me.”  
   
 “I promise.”


	6. Chapter 6

 “Koushi Sugawara.”  
    
 Suga looked over his shoulder. He had just walked into his office, closed the door, but now that he looked the door was open and someone stood staring at him. He knew that grumpy thing. “Kageyama?” He turned around. “Was it? You’re Hinata’s friend.”  
    
 Kageyama kept glaring.  
    
 Saeko was collecting her things, about to head out, when she paused to look between them.  
    
 Suga smiled. “Why don’t you come back another time; I’m kind of busy.”  
    
 “Koushi Sugawara,” Kageyama repeated, “Doctor of Medicine, thirty-seven years old, male, blood type: AB, a hundred and seventy-four centimetres tall which is roughly five foot nine, a hundred and forty pounds or sixty-five kilograms. You work today from eleven in the morning until seven at night, but you plan to stay another two hours like every Thursday. You take your first half-hour break around four thirty and the second one around seven. You have time to talk to me.”  
    
 Suga blinked.  
    
 Saeko cleared her throat. “Do you… want me to call security or something?”  
    
 Suga forced a smile. “No, I think I’m fine.”  
    
 Kageyama glanced over to her. “The person you share your office with is Saeko Tanaka, Doctor of Medicine, female. Forty years old. Angry about it. Blood type: also AB. Bra size—”  
    
 “Oi!” Saeko shouted. She huffed, picking up her things.  
    
 “What?”  
    
 Saeko glared daggers at him.  
    
 Sugawara cleared his throat. “I think I can manage this one.”  
    
 “Mhm.” Saeko nodded to him. “I have to get back to work anyway.” She walked past Kageyama. “I got my eye on you, buddy.”  
    
 “No you don’t.” Kageyama glared back at her. “You’d walk into walls.”  
    
 Saeko frowned and left, leaving the door open.  
    
 “Anyway,” muttered Suga.  
    
 Kageyama looked back at him. “Let’s talk.”  
    
    
    
 “So I bumped into your friend, Kageyama?”  
    
 “Oh God…”  
    
 The two of them were at a noodle bar. It was late, just after eleven, but Suga still needed dinner. Knowing that Suga was going to work late, Hinata had a late lunch and offered to join him. They went to a small hole-in-the-wall place, but the smell was divine and when Suga said it was really good Hinata was sold. They were getting into the swing of things, rotating their schedules around each other. They sat at the far side of the bar, sitting side by side.  
    
 “Yeah.” Suga broke apart his wooden chopsticks and rubbed them together. “I think he went through my medical records…”  
    
 “Oh geez.” Hinata poked at his plate of fried noodles and veggies. “Did he do the creepy stalky thing?”  
    
 “I don’t know exactly what the ‘creepy stalky thing’ is but I’m going to say yes. It was creepy, and definitely stalking. Given, I know my medical files are a bit easier to get considering they’re updated quite often and all, but, geez.”  
    
 “Hm.” Hinata pondered it for a moment. “Okay.”  
    
 “Okay?”  
    
 “Sorry.” Hinata smiled. “It’s totally not okay—but like, if Tobio hasn’t called me a million times just to yell at me and call me a dumbass then then that’s his way of saying he approves. He’ll probably leave you alone.”  
    
 Suga pulled some noodles out of his soup and blew on them softly. “He’s a weirdo, that’s for sure.”  
    
 “Yeah, but he’s my bestie.”  
    
 “I never said a weirdo was bad. He has good intentions, anyway. Might not be the best method, but at least he gets results right?” Suga dropped the noodles in his mouth and began chewing.  
    
 “Yeah, I guess.” Hinata laughed and tossed a sliced carrot into his mouth. After chewing and swallowing, he spoke: “We’ve known each other since kindergarten. Both of us were… well, remember how I said I was a problem child? Yeah. We were both problem children who couldn’t make friends, so then we didn’t make friends together and became friends.”  
    
 Suga slurped his soup for a moment before putting the bowl down. He couldn’t help but smile. “That’s actually a pretty cute story.”  
    
 Hinata laughed. “I guess. What did you guys talk about anyway?”  
    
 “Hmmm, well, I could probably put him in jail with all the threats he gave me.” Suga cleared his throat before doing his best impression of Kageyama: “If you hurt Shouyou, I’ll rip out your kidneys and bury them in your backyard.”  
    
 Hinata grinned.  
    
 Suga scoffed and pointed his chopsticks at him. “That’s totally not something you should smile about.”  
    
 “Sorry! No, not that. The other thing.”  
    
 Suga looked at him, blinking.  
    
 “Say it again…”  
    
 “Uh, I could put him in jail?”  
    
 “No!” Hinata laughed and hugged Suga’s arm. “My name, my first name. Say it again. I wanna hear it.”  
    
 Suga’s eyes widened for a fraction of a second before a smile tugged his lips. “Shouyou.”  
    
 Hinata grinned, kissing his cheek. “Koushi.”  
    
 Suga felt his cheeks warm and he went back to his soup, smiling like a total idiot.  
    
    
    
 Later that night, Hinata stripped for bed and straddled Suga’s hips. Suga’s hands cupped Hinata’s waist. It was rhythmic, the way they moved together—Suga deep inside, thrusting into the tight heat. Their breathing was reduced to hot pants and desperate puffs of air, bodies working together, moving together. Simply, together. They marked each other, with hickeys and love bites, bruises from being held too rough. Every morning Suga would apologise, since he always seemed to leave more on Hinata than Hinata on him. Hinata never cared, saying they were awesome reminders. Suga made sure to kiss each mark, kissing them better.  
    
    
    
 Lying in bed together one morning, the two of them didn’t bother getting up until the mid-afternoon. It was a Saturday, meaning no school for Hinata and no work for Suga. The two of them enjoyed the one day they entirely had together. But Hinata huffed.  
    
 “I want cake.”  
    
 Suga opened his eyes, blinking. He ran a hand through Hinata’s hair. “We can go buy some.”  
    
 Hinata pouted. “But I don’t wanna put on pants.”  
    
 “Okay. I’ll get you cake. A whole cake.”  
    
 “Koushi…” Hinata said, pausing because the name still tasted fresh on his tongue and he wanted to enjoy it. “You mean… you’d go outside and get me cake?”  
    
 Suga grinned. “Of course.”  
    
 “You’re an angel… stay with me, that’s enough.”  
    
 “But now I want cake…”  
    
 “But then you’d have to go away…”  
    
 “Well I can’t just make a cake; I have to go buy one.”  
    
 Hinata lifted his head. “Can we make a cake?”  
    
 Suga stared at him. “Let’s do it.”  
    
    
    
 “You’re so organised!” Hinata gasped. “Bwaaahhh!”  
    
 Oven preheating, Suga got everything out in the proper, measured, amount needed. All the ingredients were evenly spaced over his counter and he couldn’t help but laugh. “Sorry, I’m… very systematic when I bake.”  
    
 “You bake?” Hinata’s jaw dropped. “You cook, you bake, you’re a doctor… You’re legit so perfect gwahhh!”  
    
 Suga laughed, ruffling Hinata’s hair. “I used to bake more often, actually. Just haven’t had the time.”  
    
 “Let’s do it let’s do it!” Hinata bounced. “Last time I tried baking I set off the fire alarm and almost put Yamaguchi in the hospital!”  
    
 Suga stared. “That’s… great. How about you do some of the easy stuff?” He grabbed the stick of butter and the circular baking dish. “Just butter it up.”  
    
 “Butter?” Hinata eyed him. “Aren’t doctors always saying vegetable oil is healthier? Are you real?”  
    
 “Yes I’m real.” Suga kissed his forehead. “Everything in moderation.”  
    
 Hinata grinned and began rubbing the butter against the metal.  
    
 Suga grabbed a bowl and sifted the flour and the baking powder, as well as the salt.  
    
 “Done!” Hinata said. “Now what?”  
    
 “Put the butter in a bowl and add the sugar to it.”  
    
 “Hmm, okay.” Hinata dropped the butter in and then reached for the sugar.  
    
 “Uh, Shouyou?”  
    
 “Yeah?”  
    
 “You’ll want to take the rest of the packaging off the butter. We can’t put that in the cake.”  
    
 “Oh.” Hinata smiled. “That’s pretty smart.” He unwrapped the butter and then added the sugar. “Now what?”  
    
 “Now just kind of cream it together.”  
    
 “Hmm, okay.”  
    
 Suga eventually took over because Hinata didn’t know what he was doing. Then they added the eggs, mixed, then the milk, mixed, vanilla extract, mixed, and finally the solids mixed with the liquids. Turning it into one unified batter, they poured it in the pan and put it in the oven. Suga let Hinata lick the spoon of course.  
    
 “Now what?” Hinata hugged Suga from behind, pushing his nose against the small of Suga’s back.  
    
 “We wait for it to bake.”  
    
 “How long is that gonna take?”  
    
 “Forty minutes?”  
    
 “Bwaaah?”  
    
 “We have to make the icing, though!” In another blur, Suga had the kitchen cleaned and set up with more ingredients. He measured the heavy cream with the icing sugar and a touch of vanilla extract (not too much because of the colour). “Here.” Suga offered the electric whisk to Hinata. “You can mix it until I tell you to stop.”  
    
 Hinata grabbed it and then looked at Suga. “Are you sure?”  
    
 “I’ll be right here, watching.”  
    
 “Okay…” Hinata turned it on and slowly the mixture began to thicken, fluffing up. Hinata’s tongue stuck out of his mouth as he focused, making sure to make it somewhat even. It mixed and mixed and mixed, until Suga tapped his shoulder and he stopped. “Is this good?”  
    
 Suga dipped his finger in the mix and tasted it. “Mmm.”  
    
 Hinata took some as well. “Mmm!”  
    
 “Don’t steal that much!”  
    
 “Hmmmmm.” Hinata grabbed some and licked it before smearing it on his lips.  
    
 Suga dove down and stole a kiss.  
    
    
    
 Weeks passed them by. Suga loved it, spending every morning, every night, with Hinata.  
    
    
    
  _[Tooru Oikawa: Suga, dear, could I ask for a favour?]  
    
 [Koushi Sugawara: Well you can certainly ask…]  
    
 [Tooru Oikawa: Well arent u just cute. Would you be willing to drive me to the airport this weekend?]  
    
 [Koushi Sugawara: Sure. Where are you heading?]  
    
 [Tooru Oikawa: Overseas. We’ll talk more later, okay?]_  
    
    
    
 Days passed.  
    
 “I’ll be back soon, okay?” Suga asked as he put on his coat. “Just going to take Oikawa to the airport.”  
    
 Hinata grabbed one of Suga’s scarves and wrapped it around him. “Okay.” He leaned up, stealing a quick kiss.  
    
    
    
 The drive was mostly in silence. Oikawa was sitting in the passenger seat, hands together. The nervousness was easy to spot between his tense shoulders and unnatural quietness. His eyes were locked on the road ahead, but when Suga caught a glance he figured Oikawa wasn’t focused on anything in particular. “Which gate are you going to?”  
    
 Oikawa blinked. “Huh?”  
    
 “I mean, which side of the airport do you want me to take you to?”  
    
 “International.”  
    
 “Right, overseas.” Suga looked at him for half a second before looking back to the road. He flicked his turn signal and then shifted lanes. “What’s up? You’re acting really weird.”  
    
 Oikawa smiled. “Sorry.” He lowered his head for a bit. “Ushijima is taking me to a private resort island for two weeks. He’s got a business conference there, which only lasts just under a week but he’s going to be making the most of the invitation. We’ll spend our time wining and dining, expensive dinners, expensive shows… It’s… it’s going to be, great.”  
    
 Suga made a little noise. “You sound very excited.”  
    
 “I am, I just…” Oikawa took a deep breath. “I think, well… Well, I know he wants more from me. I just fear now he’s actually going to ask.”  
    
 “More?”  
    
 “Exclusivity.” Oikawa paused. “Is that a word?”  
    
 “Yes.” Suga smiled. “He wants you to be exclusive with him?”  
    
 “Yeah. I know he wants it I just, I think this is the perfect chance for him to… ask for my hand in marriage, or whatever. I haven’t made my decision yet. I’m not ready to, holy shit. What do I even do? What do I say?”  
    
 “Well.” Suga changed lanes again. “I think it’s best if you’re honest with him, for one. If you don’t know, then tell him you don’t know.”  
    
 “Right, you’re right.” Oikawa fiddled his hands together, grinding his teeth. “Hinata’s living with you now, right?”  
    
 “Yeah.”  
    
 “Temporarily, or permanently?”  
    
 “Just for a while, until he can go back to his place.”  
    
 “Oh.” Oikawa nodded. “I thought you guys moved to an allowance system or something.”  
    
 “Allowance?”  
    
 “That’s what Hajime and I have. I live with him. He pays me every month, and I’m there all the time for him. Occasionally, I do see others like Ushijima, but I’m pretty much his roommate, boyfriend, and plaything all wrapped up in one.”  
    
 “Oh.” Suga thought about it, knowing the idea was more than just a little attractive. “How would I calculate that anyway?”  
    
 “Well.” Oikawa shrugged. “Six hundred per date, right? And you meet what… four times a month?”  
    
 “Three to five, so yeah.”  
    
 “Then six hundred times four is probably the starting price. Basic math. That’s two thousand and three hundred.”  
    
 “Four hundred,” corrected Suga. He glanced over again before his eyes gravitated back to the road. “If you’re nervous, you don’t have to go.”  
    
 “I want to. I do.” Oikawa smiled. “Trust me; if there’s one thing I decided since I ran away from home it’s that I’m not doing anything I don’t want to. I want to spend time with him too, so I can figure it out, I’m just very… conflicted, about everything. I’m afraid something might happen that I’m not ready for. Or that I won’t be ready for when it comes, you know?”  
    
 “Then tell him that,” he offered. “Just tell him you need time. It’s an entire lifestyle change, too—if you say yes too fast then you’re not really considering how big of a change it’s going to be for you.”  
    
 Oikawa smiled. “You’re right.” He sighed. “Thanks for driving me.”  
    
 “Anytime.”  
    
 “We’re friends… right?”  
    
 “Of course.”  
    
 Oikawa’s smile grew. “Thank you, for letting us use your kitchen, for everything.”  
    
 “Don’t sound like you’re going to die.”  
    
 Oikawa stayed silent.  
    
 Suga looked over, eyes widening.  
    
 “I have a chronic condition…” Oikawa looked at him. “This is my last vacation.”  
    
 Suga stared before looking back at the road. When he was sure it was clear, he looked back. “Oikawa?”  
    
 Oikawa’s shoulders began shaking—until he burst out _laughing._ “I’m sorry! I’m kidding! I’m kidding!” He threw his head back. “Your face, holy shit! Hinata was right! You make the best expressions!” He snorted and covered his nose, giggling to himself.  
    
 “Holy shit…” Suga breathed a sigh of relief, glaring at the road. “I’m a doctor. I work at the ER. If there’s one person you shouldn’t do that to—it’s me.”  
    
 “I know!” Oikawa said, which was unconvincing because he kept laughing. “Sorry!”  
    
 “Asshole.” Suga grinned. “At least I’m sending the old Oikawa off. You being grumpy and silent didn’t suit you.”  
    
 “I’m not old, Sugar Sweety! I’m only twenty-one!”  
    
 “Shut up.” Suga smiled. “Just, just shut up.”  
    
 Oikawa kept laughing.  
    
    
    
 Suga opened the front door and tugged off his jacket. Allowance system? When he stepped in he heard Hinata talking, but no one replied. He figured it was a phone call or something so he hung his jacket and slipped off his scarf. Taking off his shoes, he walked to the living room in time to see Hinata put his phone down. “Boo. Wanted to ask you something.”  
    
 Hinata looked up. “Hi,” his voice was strained.  
    
 Suga wanted to bring up the allowance… but it probably wasn’t the best time. “What’s up? Everything okay?”  
    
 “Yeah, everything’s fine.” Hinata stood up, tugging on the sleeves of his sweaters to hide his hands. “Um, just… Tsuki’s parents are gone. So, I should move back.”  
    
 Suga blinked and forced a smile. “You’re free to stay here for as long as you like.”  
    
 Hinata grinned, actually grinned. Nothing fake, nothing forced, nothing strained. He grinned.  
    
 Suga swore his heart fluttered at the sight of that smile.  
    
 “Thanks, but…” Hinata pouted. “You know how my crazy friends are. Or maybe you don’t, I don’t know.”  
    
 “Hmm, between the creepy stalker bestie, the useless bisexual, and the ‘Yamaguchguch’, they’re all pretty crazy.”  
    
 Hinata laughed, loud, and tackled Suga.  
    
 Suga caught him and held him close. “You sure you have to go?”  
    
 He sighed, loud. “I should.” He pulled away. “My friends are still worried I’m with some bwah creepy older guy and well… finals are coming up. It’s best we study together, to be honest, so yeah.”  
    
 “Right.” Suga smiled. “Finals. Last finals of high school, though!”  
    
 “I know!” Hinata bounced. “I’m excited!” He looked at Suga and then tilted his head. “What did you want to ask me?”  
    
 “It can wait.”  
    
 Hinata pouted.  
    
 “You’ve got a lot on your mind with moving and finals and other stuff, don’t worry.” He leaned in and kissed Hinata’s nose. “I’ll tell you later, promise, but it can wait.”


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Second last chapter. Have I mentioned how grateful I am for all the support you guys have given me through this fic? Omfg. I love you all.
> 
> * * *

 “I miss him.”  
   
 The words had fallen so suddenly from Sugawara’s lips that he had to wonder if it was him that said it. It was, of course, but as Suga was lying down on his couch, half-asleep, it could have been anyone as far as he was concerned. Yes, he texted Hinata several times during the day, which always kept smiles on his lips, but it wasn’t quite the same… He wanted… he wanted more.  
   
 Suga wanted Hinata’s head nuzzling into his chest, Suga wanted Hinata’s arms around his waist, and Suga actually looked forward to the next time Hinata would jump-tackle-hug him.  
   
 Suga almost pouted that he didn’t have to be on guard.  
   
 The days passed with ease; they were long days, slow days, but nothing too excited happened. It wasn’t until one day when he felt a certain… familiar, _ache_ that chills crawled up his spine. He thought he was done with them, but apparently not. Something was wrong, Suga had realised, something was very wrong. He half wondered if he was worrying about anything, but maybe but also maybe not?  
   
 Maybe was just worrying for nothing.  
   
 Maybe he wasn’t.  
   
   
   
  _[Tooru Oikawa: Boo. Do you have international texting? If you don’t just ignooooore me since it’s gunna cost ya.]  
   
 [Koushi Sugawara: No worries, I do. I’m good. What’s up?]  
   
 [Tooru Oikawa: nothing just kinda bored tbh]  
   
 [Koushi Sugawara: You’re bored on your great trip? With all the shows and wine/dine-ing?]  
   
 [Tooru Oikawa: haha nah I’m actually having a LOT of fun here! But I woke up earlier than Ushijima did and he was p tired last night after his conference so I want to let hm sleep in. I just ordered like two platters of fruits and tookt he best hottest longest bath in the world]  
   
 [Koushi Sugawara: Oh wow~ spoiled like a princess, huh?]  
   
 [Tooru Oikawa: Queen*]  
   
 [Koushi Sugawara: Ah yes, I apologise. :P]  
   
 [Tooru Oikawa: you def shuld]  
   
 [Koushi Sugawara: Should*]  
   
 [Tooru Oikawa: Don’t.]  
   
 [Koushi Sugawara: Sorry! Habit.]  
   
 [Tooru Oikawa: Anyway, stud muff’, did you talk to FoShouyou about allowencees?]  
   
 [Koushi Sugawara: Not yet, didn’t get the chance. He went back home for a bit; he’s got finals and some other stuff, so I’m just waiting until he’s in a better mindset for it. Does that make sense?]  
   
 [Tooru Oikawa: Hells to the yes. Sounds like a solid plan, tbh. But…]  
   
 [Koushi Sugawara: But? Don’t end the text there.]  
   
 [Tooru Oikawa: It’s dramatic effect.]  
   
 [Koushi Sugawara: Tooru Oikawa.]  
   
 [Tooru Oikawa: LOL I totally read that in my mom’s voice omfg thank God u don’t know my middle name or that would have given me war flashbacks, holy shit.]  
   
 [Koushi Sugawara: Yes, so funny. But what?]  
   
 [Tooru Oikawa: Sorry?]  
   
 [Koushi Sugawara: OIKAWA]  
   
 [Tooru Oikawa: LOL okay sorry sorry chill ur dick of wonder]  
   
 [Koushi Sugawara: My what??]  
   
 [Tooru Oikawa: Hinata texted me the night after u guys did the do and he called your wingwang the dick of wonder. Don’t look at me it was him.]  
   
 [Koushi Sugawara: That’s… I have mixed feelings. But what, Oikawa?]  
   
 [Tooru Oikawa: All I was gonna say is but don’t let the chance pass you bye, kk?]  
   
 [Koushi Sugawara: …okay.]_  
   
   
   
 When Sugawara asked for a date, Hinata had given him a set of crying emoticons saying he had to study—as well as a couple sad selfies. Sugawara told him if he did well, he would bake another cake. That, of course, led to Hinata asking if they could ‘play’ with the icing again. Suga didn’t say yes—but he surely didn’t say no. Whenever they did text, Hinata always seemed to have lots of exclamations and question marks… but Suga couldn’t help but second guess; was Hinata really excited to talk to him, or…?  
   
   
   
  _[Hajime Iwaizumi: You’re the new trashcan.]  
   
 [Koushi Sugawara: I’m sorry, what?]  
   
 [Hajime Iwaizumi: I’m bored and hungry let’s go get something to eat.]  
   
 [Koushi Sugawara: Why am I a trashcan?]  
   
 [Hajime Iwaizumi: Because Oikawa’s not here and I’m a lonely shit without him.]  
   
 [Koushi Sugawara: Hello Hajime, yes it has been so long since we’ve talked. I’m doing well, and you?]  
   
 [Hajime Iwaizumi: I call Oikawa a trashcan, and our dates are referred to as ‘taking out the trash’.]  
   
 [Koushi Sugawara: And you made fun of my game…]  
   
 [Hajime Iwaizumi: He’s trash.]  
   
 [Koushi Sugawara: Don’t call him trash… Do you really think he’s trash?]  
   
  [Hajime Iwaizumi: No, I think he’s a fucking goddess and I have no idea why he’s with some grumpy old shit like me. It’s just part of our relationship. Don’t ask. Anyway I’m bored and hungry, wanna go out?]  
   
 [Koushi Sugawara: Is that how you’re going to ask me on a date?]  
   
 [Hajime Iwaizumi: Shut up I’m grumpy. Yes/No?]  
   
 [Koushi Sugawara: Sure. Where?]_  
   
   
   
 When they got to the restaurant, they decided to go to the heated patio. Being a weeknight, there weren’t many people around which was fine by both of them. They sat across one another, both looking tired and beat. After they put in their orders, Suga leaned on the table. “Haven’t seen you in a while.”  
   
 Iwaizumi shrugged.  
   
 Suga cocked his eyebrow. “That’s it? Just.” He shrugged.  
   
 “I guess, yeah.”  
   
 Suga smiled. “How’s work?”  
   
 Iwaizumi just sighed. “How’s yours?”  
   
 Sugawara sighed. “It’s okay… I miss Shouyou though.”  
   
 “Who?” Iwaizumi sipped his water. “Oh. Hinata?”  
   
 Suga nodded. “Shouyou,” he repeated the name, loving the sweet flavour it gave his mouth. “He makes me happy, you know?”  
   
 “I know; trust me, I know. I miss Shitkawa.”  
   
 “You’re so kind.”  
   
 “Oikawa and I… we’re the type of couple that know something’s wrong when we’re _not_ making fun of each other.”  
   
 Suga smiled. “Certainly fits both of your styles.” He tilted his head. “Whatever works for you, right? Have you talked to him lately?”  
   
 “Not since he left, no.”  
   
 “How long has he been gone for?”  
   
 “Almost two weeks. He’s coming back in a couple days, actually.”  
   
 “Already? Wow.” Suga frowned. “That’s the last night Shouyou stayed with me. Time’s really just slipping by.”  
   
 “Weren’t you used to just seeing him once a week?”  
   
 “I know, but when he was living with me…” Suga sighed. “I would wake up and there he was, I’d come home and there he was, and I would go to sleep and there he was. And he was always—always—always, always just… _excited_ to see me, you know? You can’t fake that. Not at that level. So now, even just two or three days without him and—”  
   
 Iwaizumi’s phone went off. He blinked and pulled it out. “Speak of the devil, it’s Oikawa. Mind if I take this?”  
   
 “Go for it.” Suga nodded, small smile on his lips.  
   
 Iwaizumi slid his thumb across his phone and put it to his ears. “Hey Shitface.” There was a pause. “Are you laughing or crying?” His face hardened. “Both? What do you mean both?” he spoke, worry coating his words. “What’s wrong?” He glanced to Suga, mouthing a ‘sorry’ as he got up, walking a few steps away from the table. “I can’t hear what you’re saying… breathe, okay? Just breathe… There we go. Ask me again.”  
   
 The waiter walked to the table with two plates. “The steak?”  
   
 “Over there,” Suga said as he pointed to the seat across from him.  
   
 “And the salmon fillet is yours?”  
   
 “Yes it is,” replied Suga. “Thank you,” he added. He tried not to listen to Iwaizumi’s conversation, but it was hard not to.  
   
 “Are you an idiot?” Iwaizumi asked in utter disbelief. “Of course I love you… Yes, I love you… Yes, I love-love you. You didn’t figure that out?”  
   
 Suga looked up, glancing to his best friend.  
   
 “You’re an idiot,” Iwaizumi muttered in the warmest voice Suga had ever heard, “You’re so stupid. I miss you… What decision? Oikawa?” There was a pause and he frowned. “Tooru?” Another pause. “Sure, I can’t wait.” He closed his phone and slipped it in his pocket. “Weird. Oh, the food’s here?”  
   
 “Just got here.” Suga smiled. “Sounded like quite the conversation.”  
   
 “It was.” Iwaizumi took his seat and grabbed his steak knife in one hand, fork in the other. “Has Oikawa been acting a bit weird lately?”  
   
 “More than a bit weird.”  
   
 “Huh?”  
   
 Suga’s smile tugged to a grin. “What did he ask?”  
   
 “Well, first it took him forever to calm down, and then he asked me if I loved him, so I said yeah. And then he asked if I was really in love with him, like boyfriend in love with him, and I was like yeah. He’s an idiot.” Iwaizumi sliced a section of his meat then paused, looking up. “Why is he asking me that just a few days before he’s coming back? He’s with another sugar daddy right now.”  
   
 “Hm,” replied Suga.  
   
 “Okay. Don’t ‘hm’ me.” Iwaizumi eyed him. “You’re doing that face, the one that says you know something but you’re not sure if you want to tell me.”  
   
 “Wow.” Suga blinked. “That’s a pretty specific facial expression.”  
   
 “I’ve known you long enough to tell the micro-expressions apart.”  
   
 Suga chewed on his salmon as he laughed. Wiping his lips with a napkin, he swallowed. “Ushijima probably proposed to him.”  
   
 Iwaizumi opened his mouth, but shut it. He opened his mouth again but then just shut it, again.  
   
 “We talk. Oikawa and I.”  
   
 “So… he was… asking me that because?”  
   
 “He considers you important,” explained Suga, “I think, anyway, Oikawa’s realised that even if he would be more financially stable in that kind of legal relationship with Ushijima – that’s his other sugar daddy’s name by the way – his feelings for you were a little bit more important. If you could reciprocate those feelings, then it was a no brainer.”  
   
 “Oh.”  
   
 Suga stared. “Oh?”  
   
 Iwaizumi stared right back at him.  
   
 Sugawara’s smile returned. “He would be happier with you is what he’s realised, I think.”  
   
 “What…? What if I can’t make him happy?”  
   
 “You know what?” Suga shook his head. “You deserve to be with Oikawa—you’re both idiots.”  
   
 Iwaizumi opened his mouth to retort, but a beep and a vibrating buzz cut him off. He pulled out his phone again and stared at the screen. “Wow.”  
   
 Suga looked at him. “What?”  
   
 “I, just… Oikawa texted me. He says: Shit, I just realised I hung up way too quick and I know its kinda trashy to admit this over text but I can’t manage another call until tomorrow and I just have to tell you right now that I love you. I love you so much…” Iwaizumi paused before reading the last word: “Hajime.” He blinked. “Wow… never realised how nice it is, to be told that… he even used my first name.”  
   
 “Told you—you’re both idiots.”  
   
   
   
 As nice as it was to think that Oikawa and Iwaizumi would begin to become closer… Sugawara couldn’t stop thinking about Hinata…  
   
   
   
 Hinata…  
   
   
   
 A couple days passed. Suga hadn’t heard a word from Hinata, but that was also because he was actively trying to not bug that little furball. Exam season and all. Plus, it wasn’t like he had much spare time, either. With the white doctor’s lab coat around him, he walked through to the E.R., beginning his shift. When he passed the waiting room, he saw there weren’t that many people there. Given the day of the week and time of the day, it wasn’t surprising. But, he patted the desk and cocked his head. “Hey.”  
   
 Akaashi, the young man who pretty much did everything management-wise, looked back at him. “Hey.”  
   
 “The blond kid, with the glasses?”  
   
 Akaashi pulled out the number and the file that was prepared for him. “He just got here. Possible broken arm. Someone put his arm in a sling, but he can move his shoulder. Probably not necessary.” He put it down. “There’s a patient in front of him.”  
   
 “I’m going to take this one,” said Suga. Luckily, Akaashi didn’t question him and didn’t seem to mind. Suga pulled the file and walked up to him. He wasn’t sure if this one was the useless bisexual or the ‘Yamaguchguch’, but after reading the file: “Kei Tsukishima?”  
   
 Useless bisexual.  
   
 “That’s…” Tsuki looked up, blinking. “Me… Hey. Wow. Shit… You’re a doctor.”  
   
 “I am, yes.” Suga shifted his body back a bit and motioned his arm to the hallway. “Why don’t you come with me?”  
   
 Tsuki got up and followed, staring. “Why did you settle for Hinata?”  
   
 “Well…” Suga smiled, cheeks turning red. “He’s, really bwahh.”  
   
 “Ew.”  
   
 “Anyway.” Suga coughed and led him to a room. “Possible broken arm, most likely fracture. Says here you’ve got no history of conditions, and you’re not on any medication. Right?”  
   
 “Yeah. Is it really okay to skip the other people?”  
   
 “Tonight it is since triage isn’t an issue. If it was any other night, I would have said no.”  
   
 “Triage?”  
   
 “That’s what we call the process of determining who gets medical attention first,” Suga explained. “It’s based on severity of injury and whatnot.”  
   
 “Oh.” Tsuki nodded. “Cool.”  
   
 “Just give me a minute while I set things up.” Suga said in a smile. “How is Hinata doing?”  
   
 “Huh?” Tsuki blinked. “What do you mean?”  
   
 Suga looked at him. “Like… how is he doing?”  
   
 “What do you mean?” Tsuki’s eyes narrowed, nose crinkling. “Isn’t he living with you?”


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>  **Hey!** I'm sorry for taking so long with this last chapter. I've just been overwhelmed with work and life. But! Anyway. I just wanted to say thank you... and yeah lots of people say thank you, and I'm Canadian so I usually say thank you—but I'm _serious_ this time when I say thank you. SugaHina is a rarepair so I honestly didn't even expect one fourth of the support you guys have given me. Thank you all for every single hit, kudos, comment, bookmark, subscription, etc. Omg. And you guys leave the nicest comments too,  <3\. 
> 
> If you're interested in what I'm doing next: I'm going to spend next month planning four multichap fics: A magical-boy/transboy IwaOi fic, an Alpha-Beta-Omega KageHina fic, a Sci-Fi KageHina fic, and a continuation of my Free! Witch!AU. I also have a couple SugaHina one-shots lined up (and one two-shot!) so I'll be writing lots of that pairing as well. If you guys wanna subscribe to me and come along for that, that would be awesome. <3 
> 
> BUT, enough about me. Here is the last chapter of the Suga Daddy AU. Enjoy!
> 
> * * *

 “It happens all the time.”  
   
 Iwaizumi, sitting at his kitchen table, looked up from his cup of coffee. “What?”  
   
 Suga looked how he felt—a train wreck. His hair was frazzled, dark bags hung under his eyes, while his eyes themselves had red lines forming all over the whites. His fingers twitched; he was always moving his hands. He grabbed his coffee cup, watching the liquid form ripples from his subconscious shaking. “He just… he said it happens all the time. Tsukishima just, I don’t know. Apparently this happens a lot. He just, disappears for a while.”  
   
 “Just…” Iwaizumi slowly glanced to the digital clock, noting that it was past two in the morning, but he wasn’t tired anyway. “He just disappears?” he asked after looking back to his best friend.  
   
 “Yeah.”  
   
 “That’s… fucked.”  
   
 “I know… I don’t know what to do. And I know I don’t know what to do which is not helping what I know—which is that I don’t know what to do.” Suga took a sip. “What should I do?”  
   
 “Well…” Iwaizumi shrugged. “Is it really that bad?”  
   
 Suga paused.  
   
 “Look, I’m not saying you should just forget about it or anything,” he explained, “But, Suga, I mean… he’s a student, right? The school would know something. I’m sure if it’s really bothering you, his friends would know something too.”  
   
 “You’re right.” Suga put his coffee down, taking a deep breath. “You’re right. Laptop. Give.”  
   
 “What?”  
   
 “Give me your laptop.”  
   
 Iwaizumi glanced over to his side to see his computer. He grabbed it and handed it over. “Here.”  
   
 Suga took it with a mutter of thanks and then put it down in front of him. He opened the top and then rubbed his finger against the touchpad to light up the screen. “I’m—Oh!” He launched himself back. “Oh, oh gosh!” He covered his eyes and then peaked through two fingers. “What the…? What kind of porn do you watch?”  
   
 Iwaizumi blinked. “Huh?” He blinked again. “Oh, you mean the ginger thing? Yeah. It’s weird. Oikawa sent it to me.”  
   
 Suga covered his mouth and began closing the tabs. “Why would she put ginger _there_ anyway? You’re sick. That’s sick.”  
   
 “Nah, we’re not into that.” Iwaizumi yawned. “Oikawa just sends me weird porn links.”  
   
 “But why?”  
   
 “Mmm, he called me last night. I was drowsy and he called me a cupcake, so I called him a gingerbread man and then he sent me that.”  
   
 “Why did you _click_ it?”  
   
 “I don’t know. I don’t know anything when it comes to Tooru. Things just kind of happen on their own.”  
   
 “Okay well.” Suga took a deep breath and began typing. “I’m going to search phone numbers from our high school.”  
   
 “Huh?” Iwaizumi blinked. “Why? Aren’t they closed now?”  
   
 “Shouyou goes there, and yes, but.” He made a couple clicks. “Faculty page.”  
   
 “Teachers?”  
   
 “Daichi.”  
   
 Iwaizumi blinked. “Sawamura? What.”  
   
 “He works there. He’s an art teacher… Shouyou’s art teacher. He found out we were dating.”  
   
 “That, must have been awkward.”  
   
 “Yeah, a little but—There!” He grabbed his phone and began typing the digits.  
   
 “Wait.” Iwaizumi frowned. “He’s probably asleep.”  
   
 “No.” Suga glanced to the time. “It’s only… two… thirty-six.” He hit call anyway and put it to his ear.  
   
 “Is that his cell phone at least? Not home phone?”  
   
 “Home phone.” Suga bit his lip and looked at the webpage. “He didn’t list his cellphone.”  
   
 “What if his wife picks up or something?”  
   
 “Then I’m just going to hope he doesn’t have a—Hello?” Suga forced a smile when he didn’t recognise the person on the other end. “Um, hi. I apologise for calling so late, but is this Sawamura Daichi’s number?”  
   
  _“Yeah it is. Can I ask who’s calling?”_  
   
 “I’m an old friend of his. I’m Sugawara, and I know this is late but—”  
   
  _“Yo!”_ there was a burst of laughter, _“Koushi, my man! What’s up? It’s Kuroo!”_  
   
 “Kuroo?” Suga blinked. He instantly smiled, but then paused. “I’m sorry—I’d love to catch up but this is really important. Is Daichi there?”  
   
 Kuroo mumbled something or another, before the voice on the other end of the line changed. _“Koushi?”_  
   
 “Hi!” He straightened his spine. “I’m sorry, I hope I’m not interrupting or anything.”  
   
  _“No, it’s fine. We live together. Married, actually. You don’t sound too good though… is everything alright? What’s wrong?”_  
   
 “It’s about Shouyou.” Suga welcomed the topic getting back on track and breathed a little sigh of relief. “Apparently he’s… missing. Sort of. He told his friends he was staying with me—and he told me he was staying at his friends…”  
   
 There was a pause before a deep sigh. _“He’s doing it again, huh?”_  
   
 “This is… common?”  
   
  _“I wouldn’t say common, exactly. But… How do I put this? I don’t really know what’s going on, but the teachers do talk about him. Education isn’t compulsory after sixteen, so the school can’t really do anything to stop him, except threaten to fail him but then he might just leave for good, see? And now that he’s an adult he can technically excuse himself from class.”_  
   
 “Wait.” Suga frowned. “What?”  
   
  _“I know. It doesn’t exactly make sense but it’s not exactly—Kuroo. Do. Not. Touch that cake. You will not like what happens if you touch that cake. That’s for your parents tomorrow. Close the fridge door. Close it. I said close it. Good.”_ A second or two passed. _“Sorry about that. What were we talking about?”_  
   
 “Shouyou.”  
   
  _“Right. He’s excusing himself from class. It’s messed up. The school district is trying to change it, but changing laws means going through hoops so it will take time.”_  
   
 “I’m worried.” Suga closed his eyes. “I’m really worried.”  
   
  _“Shouyou… he knows how to handle himself, sort of. But I can’t really help. I’m sorry Koushi… I would do so much more if I had the power to—Kuroo!—the power to do something about the situation. That’s the best I can… I’m sorry, I have to go. Kuroo…”_  
   
 “Um.” Suga frowned. “Bye?”  
   
 Iwaizumi looked up.  
   
 Suga put his phone down.  
   
 “So?”  
   
 Suga just sighed.  
   
   
   
 With that call yielding no fruitful results, Suga narrowed his options. He had to wait until morning to actually do something, but he was too restless to sleep. He self-medicated with melatonin tablets until he passed out—which was a horrible idea, but Suga rationalised that the rays from the screen reduced his melatonin levels so it would be okay if he popped about one or two or twelve of the three milligram quick dissolve ones.  
   
 When his alarm went off, he called in for a sick day. Saeko Tanaka was more than happy to trade tomorrow’s night shift for his afternoon one, and he promised he’d do something nice for her when he got the chance.  
   
 He only had one option left, though.  
   
 Hinata’s friends.  
   
 He didn’t exactly remember where Tsukishima’s house was, but he knew it was near the school. It was roughly a twenty minute drive but he swore he was driving around the neighbourhood for at least forty. He drove, turned, turned again and ended up somewhere he didn’t want to be. “Damn it!” he shouted as he slammed the palm of his hands against the steering wheel. “Fuck!” he punched the centre of the steering wheel, which made the horn blare.  
   
 It scared a kid walking her dog.  
   
 “Sorry,” he said even though she couldn’t hear him. He gave an apologetic wave to her and she smiled. “Calm down,” he spoke to himself. He drove a bit more until he could pull over. He closed his eyes and ran his hands through his hair.  
   
 He swallowed hard.  
   
 “Okay, okay. Just breathe, Suga.” He filled his lungs and then released the air slowly. “The hippocampus plays a major role in spatial navigation. Stress shuts down the hippocampus. Breathe, breathe.” He did as he said. “Breathing out longer than breathing in activates the parasympathetic nervous system.” He opened his eyes and began driving again.  
   
 After five more minutes, he spotted the house.  
   
 He pulled over.  
   
 Sugawara Koushi forgot one thing, though. When he walked to the front door and rang the doorbell, it didn’t occur to him that Tsuki wouldn’t be the one to open the door. It was a woman, in her late forties. Parents. Shit. Shit. He forced a smile.  
   
 “Oh hi.” She smiled back. “You must be one of Kei’s friends for his study party.”  
   
 Suga blinked. “Study party?”  
   
 “Yes, he said he was inviting some of his friends to study for the final exams. That’s why you’re here, right?”  
   
 “Yes!” Suga grinned. “Just found ‘study party’ a little weird. That doesn’t sound like Tsuki’s words.”  
   
 She laughed and took a step back to let him in. “Oh no, those are my words. They’re in the living room.”  
   
 He stepped in, took off his shoes, and dipped his head in respect. “Thank you.”  
   
 “So polite, wow.”  
   
 Suga just smiled and headed down the hall towards sounds that sounded like talking. The house was a small place, modest, with tacky wallpaper that was probably twenty years out of style, but he ignored it. As he walked down the hall, he saw Kageyama leave one room and disappear into another. Suga awkwardly looked into where he came out of to see two people sitting at a low table. He knew it was going to be weird, but he didn’t exactly have a choice.  
   
 Suga shuffled in and slowly walked to the table. When he sat down, both Tsukishima and Yamaguchi looked up at him. Suga stared at them and then looked away. “Your mom… thinks I’m a teenager.”  
   
 Yamaguchi tilted his head. “Well you’re just a few years older than us, right?”  
   
 “He’s a doctor,” muttered Tsuki.  
   
 “Doctor?” Yamaguchi blinked. “Wait, what?”  
   
 “I’m… thirty seven, actually.”  
   
 “Wait. You went to med school, right?” Yamaguchi shoved his notebook in front of him. “Can you explain the like… ATP and sugar cycles of photosynthesis to me? Or whatever they’re called?”  
   
 “Oh, well that’s easy.” Suga smiled and pointed at the neatly drawn diagram Yamaguchi had copied from their textbook. “Photosynthesis is actually two reactions working together; there’s the light-dependant reaction and then the Calvin cycle which is—Wait.” He shook his head. “That’s not why I’m here.”  
   
 Yamaguchi pulled his notebook back. “Um, so… why _are_ you here?”  
   
 “Shouyou,” Suga explained, hands fumbling together in his lap. “He’s missing.”  
   
 “What do you mean?” Yamaguchi didn’t seem too concerned. “Did he like run away? Not come one night? Or like… more than one night? Because he usually stays out a couple nights.”  
   
 “Not that.” Tsuki adjusted his glasses. “Just his usual disappearing act.”  
   
 Suga nodded. “He told me he was living here.”  
   
 “Well,” Yamaguchi said in a tired voice. “Shouyou—”  
   
 “-Sh,” Tsuki cut him off.  
   
 Suga blinked. “Huh?”  
   
 Looming over the three of them, Kageyama scowled. “What about Shouyou?”  
   
 Suga looked up, swallowing hard. “He’s missing.”  
   
 Kageyama sat down slowly, glaring at Tsuki and Yamaguchi. “Why didn’t you tell me?”  
   
 “I didn’t know,” Yamaguchi defended—which shifted Kageyama’s glare solely to Tsuki.  
   
 Tsuki scoffed. “Because you fly off the handle.”  
   
 “I don’t.”  
   
 “Um.” Yamaguchi wiggled in place a bit. “You kind of do.”  
   
 Kageyama’s glare—which Suga didn’t believe was possible— _intensified._ “When did he leave you? I want the day, month, year. In that order. Time, in military format. And the weather, both temperature and precipitation.”  
   
 “Year?” Tsuki cocked his head. “It was obviously recent.”  
   
 Kageyama frowned. “You don’t know that.”  
   
 “Actually…” Yamaguchi was still wiggling. “We kind of do…”  
   
 “No you don’t.”  
   
 “Yes, we do. And if you have the day you could just search up the weather at the time online,” Yamaguchi added.  
   
 Suga cleared his throat, getting all three teenagers to look at him. “Can you tell me where he would have gone?” He sighed. “I just want to find him, okay? He’s not answering my texts and just… if he’s not here, where would he be?”  
   
 “Home?” Yamaguchi asked. “I mean, well it’s not much of a home, but his parents live together.”  
   
 “No,” Kageyama muttered. “He wouldn’t go there.”  
   
 “Not unless he had a reason,” Tsuki agreed.  
   
 Yamaguchi pouted. “Is it really… that impossible?”  
   
 Suga thought back to… _“Yeah. Whenever this happens, I usually go live with my parents again but I just… I can’t. I don’t want to… I just… I can’t!” Hinata yelled, suddenly, then sucked in his breath. “Sorry… I’m sorry… I didn’t mean to…”_ The voice was so broken and… “It would be pretty impossible. But, maybe he had some reason to go back?”  
   
 “He doesn’t.” Tsuki shook his head. “He hates his whole family, and they hate him.”  
   
 “Grandmother,” offered Yamaguchi. “He loves her to tears.”  
   
 Tsuki glanced at him. “Maybe he went to visit her?”  
   
 “But then…” Yamaguchi put a finger to the side of his face as he thought. “How long would he go visiting her, right? Usually he goes for a day.”  
   
 “Hm.” Suga looked away. “Maybe she’s dying.”  
   
 All three of them paused.  
   
 Suga straightened his spine. “Ah, sorry.” He scratched the back of his head. “I work at the E.R. so I’m just, I have a ‘worst case scenario’ schema going on.”  
   
 “Schema?” asked Yamaguchi.  
   
 “It means,” Tsuki began but—  
   
 “Doesn’t matter.” Kageyama scowled. “If his grandmother was dying… maybe he’d stick it out at his parents place. It’s closer. A lot closer.”  
   
 “Hm.” Tsukishima thought about it. “Either that or… what are you doing?”  
   
 Kageyama was scribbling something on a notebook. “Writing.”  
   
 “That’s mine.” Tsuki frowned.  
   
 “Here.” Kageyama slid the notebook in front of Suga. “It’s the address where his grandmother lives. The senior care centre, thing. I’m pretty sure anyway. I cross-referenced Shouyou’s last name to elder care homes. She has orange hair… or had, since it’s greying, but I’ve memorised the address in case I ever needed it. I don’t have a car so… take it.”  
   
 “Um.” Tsuki’s eyes narrowed. “Those are my notes…”  
   
 Suga snapped a pic on his phone. He made sure the image was clear before putting it away. “I’m good. Thanks.” He was about to get up—  
   
 Kageyama latched onto his arm. “I trust you.”  
   
 Suga swallowed hard. “Why? You barely know me.”  
   
 “Because you… Do you remember, when I came into your office?”  
   
 “And you knew the bra size of the doctor I share an office with?”  
   
 “Yeah.”  
   
 Tsuki and Yamaguchi looked at each other; Tsuki raised an eyebrow while Yamaguchi just blinked twice.  
   
 “I asked you,” Kageyama went on, “What you thought about Shouyou… you said he was pretty bwah.”  
   
 Tsuki shrugged. “He did the same thing to me.”  
   
 Suga paused. “Does that mean something?”  
   
 “Yes,” Kageyama answered.  
   
 Since Kageyama felt no need to elaborate, Yamaguchi coughed. “Shouyou doesn’t _bwah_ or _gwah_ in front of people he doesn’t really care for.”  
   
 “Huh?” Suga thought about it. He thought about their first and second date. There was none of those noises. It wasn’t until they knew each other for a while—and then it suddenly became every second sentence had one of those sound effects. When Suga really thought about it… he couldn’t imagine talking to Hinata without the bwahs or gwahs or pwehs or fwip fwoops or whatever.  
   
 Kageyama let go of his arm. “Don’t fuck up.”  
   
 Suga stood up. “I won’t.”  
   
   
   
 As Suga drove, his phone began ringing. He answered it on his hands free and then called out, “Hey.”  
   
  _“Yo,”_ was Iwaizumi’s response. _“Are you driving?”_  
   
 “Yeah.”  
   
  _“Me too, actually. I’m on my way to the airport, going to pick up Tooru. So, any progress on finding your twerp?”_  
   
 “Sort of,” he admitted. “I found the address where his grandmother lives.”  
   
  _“Huh?”_  
   
 “Um, basically it’s like the only family Shouyou cares about. He might be there.”  
   
  _“Oh, I guess that makes sense… Are you going to bring a gift or something? I don’t know, isn’t that what people do when they visit old people? Flowers?”_  
   
 “Uh, maybe?” Suga thought about it. Maybe…  
   
   
   
 So, yeah, there may have been a time when Oikawa made fun of him, and his game, for tomatoes… but if it could make Hinata smile like he did back then, Sugawara simply did not care. He had bought a tomato, a huge one—big, plump, red. Organic, fair trade. All the good overpriced good stuff. He actually had to use two hands to carry it, which made it a little hard to carry from the parking lot to the main entrance, but that didn’t matter.  
   
 Suga walked up to the receptionist and smiled. “Hi… I’m, uh, looking for Natsu Hinata?”  
   
 The man working there looked up, giving him a practiced smile before turning back to the papers in front of him. “She’s in the second common area, I think.”  
   
 “Thanks…” Suga paused. “Where would that be?”  
   
 “Oh, sorry.” The man sat up and pointed his arm down the hall. “First door on your left.”  
   
 “Oh.” He glanced to see the sign above the door. “Thank you.” He nodded and walked off, heading to where he was directed. Suga reminded himself to breathe. His chest was a web of locks and rattling chains. When he stepped in, he looked around. It was a nice place, really. There were plenty of plants, a large plasma television in the back (playing some sports show) and several tables decorated with nice cloths. When Suga scanned the room…  
   
 A tuft of orange hair.  
   
 The room was mostly empty, but there was one tuft of orange hair. Two, if the elderly woman’s greyed version counted. Suga eyed her for a moment. She was sitting in a chair, an electric wheelchair. Expensive kind. It looked comfy and she threw her head back in laughter, massive smile on her wrinkled lips.  
   
 Sitting on the floor in front of her, resting his chin on her knees…  
   
 “Shouyou,” Suga whispered without realising. Hinata also looked okay. Hinata had a square bandaid on his cheek, but despite that his eyes were alive and he was moving his hands as he was telling some story to his grandmother. Suga’s eyes moved back to her, the grandmother; she seemed alive, healthy, well. So that wasn’t it. So they were wrong.  
   
 Suga stared for a long moment before Natsu turned her head and looked at him.  
   
 Suga’s spine straightened and he smiled.  
   
 Hinata followed his grandmother’s gaze and his lips tugged into a smile. “Koushi!” But, as he paused, reality began to set in. The cracks in his smile widened and broke the curve; his smile became nothing but a pair of parted lips. “K-Kou… Suga?”  
   
 Natsu smiled. “A friend of yours?” Either she didn’t notice the difference in her grandson’s demeanour, or maybe she just pretended not to.  
   
 Hinata blinked. “Um…. Yeah. Kind of.” He stood up, blank eyes locked on him. “What are you doing here?”  
   
 “I was…” Suga paused, accidentally, distracted by just soaking up the sight of Hinata being okay. “I was looking for you.”  
   
 “How did you…?” Hinata’s expression soured and he frowned. “How did you even find this place?”  
   
 “W-Well, your friend um… what was his name? The, uh, special cookie. Smash the upper jaw, quick left hook guy.”  
   
 “Tobio?”  
   
 “Him, yeah.”  
   
 Hinata’s frown intensified. “What…?” He didn’t know how to finish his question, so he just stared.  
   
 “Well…” Suga wanted to take a step forward, but his legs felt too heavy, like rocks, to lift. “I miss you.”  
   
 “You…” Hinata’s eyes widened. “You should go.”  
   
 “Shouyou…”  
   
 “Get out.”  
   
 Suga stared.  
   
 “Now.”  
   
 Suga looked away for a moment before shaking his head. “If that’s what you want.”  
   
 Hinata pursed his lips, looking like he was forcing himself to say it was, but before any words left his mouth,  
   
 “What a lovely tomato,” said Natsu. Both of them turned to her and she just smiled. “Kenma, dear,” she spoke to one of the staff working there. “Could you get us a plate and a knife, please?” When he nodded, she smiled and said thanks. “Why don’t we move to one of the tables?” She put her hand on the joystick of her chair and began rolling towards one. “Grab some chairs, you two.”  
   
 “N-Nanna,” whined Hinata.  
   
 “I-I’m Suga, by the way.” Sugawara smiled as he pulled up a chair.  
   
 “Suga?”  
   
 “It’s short for Sugawara.”  
   
 “What a lovely name.” She smiled, brown eyes lighting up with the world in them. Same as Shouyou’s, Suga couldn’t help but think. She tilted her head. “I am Natsu. I see you know my grandson.”  
   
 Hinata yanked a chair and slammed it in front of the table. He took a seat and glared at Suga. “What are you even doing here?”  
   
 “I was worried about you,” Suga kept his voice down even though he wanted to scream his heart out. “Is that so hard to understand? That I’m worried?”  
   
 “Why?” Hinata pouted. “I’m fine. Just fine, okay?”  
   
 “Where are you living? What are you doing? What about school? You have classes. You can’t just excuse yourself. What about the scholarships you’re aiming for? What about your friends? Your exams? Your teachers? You can’t just disappear without a word—so what the hell are you doing?”  
   
 “Shut up,” Hinata hissed. His hands gripped the edge of his armrest to the point where his knuckles tightened to a sickly white. “It’s all your fault anyway!”  
   
 Suga blinked once, twice. “What?”  
   
 Kenma returned with a plate, some napkins, and a butter knife.  
   
 Suga put the tomato on the plate and watched as Natsu cut it into six pieces. She pushed two towards the edges closest to each of them and ate one. “Delicious.”  
   
 Hinata ate one as well, saying nothing. When Suga ate one, he smiled at Natsu. “They really are delicious.”  
   
 Hinata mimicked him in a high-pitch voice: _“They really are delicious,”_ before stealing one of Suga’s slices.  
   
 “Mature,” Suga commented before stealing Hinata’s last one.  
   
 “Hey!”  
   
 “Well now we both had two.”  
   
 Natsu pushed her last slice forward. “Have mine.”  
   
 Hinata frowned. “No.”  
   
 “No thank you,” Suga said with a smile.  
   
 Hinata glared.  
   
 Natsu ate the last one and then wiped her hands with a napkin. “So, Suga, you must be older. Are you a student?”  
   
 “Uh, no.” Suga forced a smile. “I’m a doctor actually.”  
   
 Natsu’s eyes widened. “Wow.”  
   
 “Excuse me,” Hinata cut in. “Can I… talk to you, Suga?”  
   
 Suga eyed him. “Will you actually talk this time?”  
   
 “Shut up.” Hinata stood up and yanked Suga’s arm. “We’ll be back, Nanna.”  
   
   
   
 Suga wasn’t exactly sure where they were, but it looked like a hallway. It wasn’t very crowded; in fact, it was empty, gave them a sense of privacy. Well, enough privacy anyway.  
   
 Hinata took a deep breath. “Okay, what the fuck are you doing here?”  
   
 “You’re an idiot,” Suga blurted out. “Look. Sorry, okay? I just… how many times do I have to say it? I was worried about you, Shouyou. I found out you weren’t staying at Tsukishima’s—”  
   
 “—You were stalking me?—”  
   
 “—No! He came to the hospital because of a broken arm—”  
   
 “—He broke his arm?—”  
   
 “—No!” Suga sighed. “Look. Just, let me talk, okay?” When Hinata didn’t reply, Suga took it as a green light. “Tsukishima ended up having a light fracture. It wasn’t as bad as it looked. It’s not even his arm, it’s actually his—That’s not the point. I just… I didn’t know where you were, okay?” He looked at the floor. “I just… I couldn’t sleep. I tried texting you, I tried calling you, I just… I didn’t know what to do. I… I was scared. I was really scared.”  
   
 “Well!” Hinata’s eyes, now watering, widened. “I’m fine, so. Bye!” He turned and walked awa—  
   
 Suga latched onto his arm. He yanked him back. “Where are you staying? Is it another sugar daddy?”  
   
 “Yes.”  
   
 “It’s not, is it?”  
   
 “No…”  
   
 “Is it your parents’ place?”  
   
 Hinata looked away. “Yeah…”  
   
 Suga pulled him closer, bringing his head down to look Hinata at eye-level, though Hinata avoided his eye-contact. “How’s that going?”  
   
 “Well…” Hinata sighed. “Dad threw a couple beer bottles at me, pretty sure my mom stole like fifty bucks…”  
   
 Suga brought up his free hand and lightly poked the bandaid on his cheek. “What happened here?”  
   
 “Like I said, my dad threw a couple beer bottles at me. They didn’t hit me or anything, but it hit a wall. Chunk of glass broke off and slashed me. It’s just a scratch, nothing deep. I took care of it.”  
   
 “Took care of it?”  
   
 “I know first aid,” he explained. “I know what to do for little scratches.”  
   
 Suga leaned in and kissed the bandaid.  
   
 Hinata squeezed his eyes and jerked his head away. “What’s that for, anyway?”  
   
 “You…” Suga’s eyes softened. “You deserve… You deserve so much more.”  
   
 “Shut up… What do you know?” Hinata opened his eyes and shoved Suga back, taking several steps away from him. “What the _hell_ do you know? It’s… it’s all your fault, anyway!”  
   
 “My fault?” Suga’s brows knitted together. “How is it my fault?”  
   
 “You!” Hinata yelled, “It’s you!” His eyes watered and he swallowed hard. “Shut up. Just, go… just go away, okay?”  
   
 “No. I’m not leaving.” He took a step forward. “Look, I know—I know you hate it when people get forceful, but you’re downright scaring me right now. And, honestly, I don’t care what you say you are _not_ safe.”  
   
 “There you go again!” Hinata backed away, shaking his head wildly. “Stop it!”  
   
 “Stop what, Shouyou?”  
   
 “Just… everything! It’s, all your fault! Do you have, do you have any idea? What it’s like to be called… pretty?” He hugged his arm. “You think anyone _wants_ to be a sugar baby forever? You think we want to depend on some dumb rich fuck with money? You think we like being eyed like we’re pieces of meat? Treated like some legal loophole hooker? You think we want to occasionally give our bodies to some awful piece of shit just so he doesn’t stop paying us? Do you have any idea what dating you feels like?”  
   
 Suga stared, eyes wide. “I… I didn’t…” He looked away. “I didn’t know I made you… feel that way.”  
   
 “That’s just it, okay?” Hinata shook his head. “You didn’t! You… you looked at me, and you called me cute, and pretty. You snuggled me, and cuddled me, and you fucking kissed my cheek and my forehead and just… you treat me like a person, and, and… Do you have any idea how much you’re fucking me up right now? I have a plan. My life has a plan. I graduate this year, spend fall term getting more money, start courses in spring, take a full semester in summer—I have my plans all lined up. You’re not, you’re not part of that plan!”  
   
 Suga just tilted his head. “What are you… even talking about? What did I do wrong? What can I fix? I’ll do it better, whatever it is. Why are you avoiding me?”  
   
 “Because I wasn’t supposed to meet you!”  
   
 “I… Shouyou, I don’t… I don’t get it. I don’t understand…”  
   
 “I wasn’t!” He closed his eyes, taking a deep shaking breath. “I… you… You don’t know, okay? You don’t know what it’s like, to be nothing but a sex toy for people, and then go to a date at a fucking _art gallery_ and then an _opera_ and go on dates, and have you cook for me, and we even baked a cake together… You weren’t, you weren’t supposed to be like that.”  
   
 “Be like _what?_ Just say it!”  
   
 “You weren’t supposed to make me feel like, maybe, for just one Goddamn second the world revolved around me!” Hinata stepped forward, glaring. “You weren’t supposed to make me feel like I’ve got a bunch of butterflies in my tummy, and you weren’t supposed to me make me feel all warm, bwah and gwah, and safe, and make me feel like I had somewhere I belong!” He took another breath. “I… that… That wasn’t part of my plan. I told you… I’ve got it all planned.”  
   
 “Oh.”  
   
 “See?” Hinata wiping away the tears threatening to fall from the corner of his eyes. “Don’t you get it now? I can’t be with you. You’re my sugar daddy… you pay for dates. There’s money, and there’s company, then I leave. You get bored. You will; they all do. Even If you don’t, this kind of relationship—”  
   
 “—Live with me.”  
   
 Hinata blinked. “What?”  
   
 “Allowance system,” Suga muttered. “I was going to ask you before you left… I’m so dumb for not saying it then. I’m sorry. But it’s like allowance, but for adults. That’s what Oikawa called it, anyway. I pay you monthly, and you’ll live with me. Like you did before, but with pay. The university you’re going to is just a couple blocks from my place, too, right? You’ll save on commute times and your expenses will be cut; hell, I’ll be paying you to go to school pretty much.”  
   
 “Koushi…” Hinata shook his head. “You’re not listening!”  
   
 “I am.”  
   
 “You’re not!”  
   
 “I love you.”  
   
 Hinata paused, eyes wide. “What?” All the strength left his arms, his voice, his body, until he was quiet and frail. “What… did you-?”  
   
 “That’s what you’re afraid of, right?” Suga’s eyes softened. He scratched the back of his head, smiling as a warm streak of red lined from one cheek to the other. “You’re afraid of getting attached to me, because I’m just a sugar daddy. You’re afraid of getting attached because you think I’m going to get tired of you, because you’re in too deep. You’re so… stupid, Shouyou.”  
   
 “What?” Hinata blinked. “Why?”  
   
 “What? ‘Why?’ what?”  
   
 “Why… do you love me?”  
   
 “God, you really are stupid.”  
   
 “No! I’m not!” Hinata scowled. “Just, why? Why?”  
   
 “Because you made me fall utterly in love with you.” Suga smiled, grinned even. “With how you’re just so… excited, to see me. How you’re never afraid of hiding that. How adorable you are, how smart you are, how you make me laugh. How you always make me smile. How living doesn’t hurt when I’m with you; you made me fall in love with you, Shouyou, with all your bwahs and your gwahs… and with just, everything that’s just… you.”  
   
 “Koushi…” Hinata felt his body ease. “Wow… I really am an idiot.”  
   
 “You are an idiot. A fucking idiot…” Suga offered his hand. “But _my_ idiot, okay?”  
   
 Hinata took his hand, feeling their fingers interweave. He wasn’t sure how it happened, but his face was shoved into Suga’s chest and he felt two arms around him. He put his own arms around Suga’s waist and he closed his eyes.  
   
 “I’m not just going to throw you out one day, out of the blue.” Suga kissed the top of his head. “This is where you belong, okay?”  
   
 Hinata nodded, squishing his eyes even more closed. He nuzzled into the smell of Suga and the next thing he knew he was choking on his sobs, breaking apart, crying.  
   
 “I’ll take care of you, love you, support you,” Suga assured. “That’s what a boyfriend does, right?”  
   
 “B-But… it’s so… one-sided.” Hinata sobbed. “I’m getting all the good stuff.”  
   
 Suga smiled, wondering if he was surrounded by morons—but then again, maybe Suga himself was also a moron. He considered it, finding it likely. “Maybe it’s not financially, maybe it’s not in the traditional way, but you support me. You take care of me. You’re so… alive, all the time. It’s rubbing off on me. You make me want to get up in the mornings, you make me want to try new things, to take you new places, to do… so much more. I used to get these aches, everywhere, but when I’m with you I just… I don’t know. Maybe I’m just taking care of myself more because I want to see you all the time I just—”  
   
 Hinata grabbed Suga’s head and yanked him down, pressing their lips together.  
   
 When their lips parted, Suga grinned. “Love you.”  
   
 “I love you,” whispered Hinata. “I love you, I love you, I love you, I love you, I love you.”  
   
 “Hm… one more time?”  
   
 Hinata pouted, but his pout melted into a grin. “I love you.”  
   
 “I love you too,” said Suga with a laugh. He brought their lips back together again, where they belonged.  
   
   
   
 When they spoke to Natsu again, they said their goodbyes. She gave a knowing smile and a little nod to Suga, and Suga couldn’t help but smile right back at her. The car drive home was mostly in silence. They picked up a couple things from Hinata’s parents house first, but that didn’t take too long. Not much was said between them.  
   
   
   
 “I love your home,” Hinata admitted as he walked in.  
   
 “Our home.”  
   
 “Right… _our_ home.”  
   
   
   
 Hinata spent a while texting. When Suga asked who it was, Hinata explained he was mostly getting yelled at by Kageyama, Yamaguchi, and Tsukishima. Suga’s only response was “Good”, paired with a kiss to Hinata’s cheek. Hinata smiled, but the smile eventually wore out and the tears came back. Suga held him tight, nuzzling his hair and encouraging him to let it out, let it all out. Hinata sobbed; he sobbed until he looked like he was going to pass out. Suga moved them to the bed. They cuddled up, and within a minute Hinata had fallen asleep.  
   
 “He looks so tired,” Suga whispered to himself. He played with his hair. Closing his eyes for just a second, he ended up drifting off. He was awoken three hours later by a buzz from his phone.  
   
  _[Hajime Iwaizumi: Sugar babies are a mistake]_  
   
 Suga blinked a couple times before typing his response.  
   
  _[Koushi Sugawara: Huh?]  
   
 [Hajime Iwaizumi: I just asked Oikawa to marry me and he said yes]  
   
 [Koushi Sugawara: What do you mean by mistake?]  
   
 [Hajime Iwaizumi: Best mistake of my life holy shit I’m actually marrying this trashcan. Hes a fucking goddess and he wants to spend his life with old and crusty me. Holy shit.]  
   
 [Koushi Sugawara: Well, congrats on the marriage!]  
   
 [Hajime Iwaizumi: Yeah shit idk man I’m kinda scared... anyway hows the search for yours?]  
   
 [Koushi Sugawara: He’s home safe.]  
   
 [Hajime Iwaizumi: Yeah? Thank fuck. Everything okay between you guys?]  
   
 [Koushi Sugawara: Right now it’s the best it’s ever been. He’s agreed to living with me on an allowance system.]  
   
 [Hajime Iwaizumi: *whistles* nice]  
   
 [Koushi Sugawara: Thank you by the way, and tell Oikawa as well. Thank you.]  
   
 [Hajime Iwaizumi: huh? For what?]  
   
 [Koushi Sugawara: For convincing me to date Shouyou.  <3]  
   
 [Hajime Iwaizumi: I can feel your gross gushing from here, but you’re welcome. Treasure that little shit, got it? Then again idk man. I don’t think I need to tell you.]  
   
 [Koushi Sugawara: Nope!]_  
   
 “Koushi?”  
   
 Suga tossed his phone away and put his arm around Hinata. “Yeah?”  
   
 “You know how you promised to take care of me?”  
   
 “Of course. What do you need?”  
   
 “Can you explain the Calvin cycle to me?” Hinata smiled as he opened his eyes. “I really don’t get the two parts to photosynthesis, so…”  
   
 Suga laughed, kissed Hinata’s forehead, and pulled him close. “Well, I did say I would support you… but let me cuddle my money’s worth first, deal?”  
   
 “Bwaaaaah! Deal, deal, deal!”

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading. <3


End file.
